The invention relates to a beverage machine that includes a brewing unit which can be opened for introducing or removing an ingredient capsule and closed for brewing a beverage from the ingredient capsule; a passage having an opening and which is arranged for guiding the ingredient capsule from the passage opening into the brewing unit; and a closing part for closing the passage opening when the brewing unit is closed. The closing part is relatively movable over the passage opening with a generally parallel relative movement thereto from an open relative position in which the ingredient capsule can be passed into the brewing unit via the passage to a closed relative position, in which the passage opening is closed by the closure member. The closing part optionally extends over edges of the passage opening.

One problem encountered is the positioning of the capsule in the device and the closing of the latter around the capsule to perform the brewing process. The capsule usually has to be positioned by the user on a capsule support or in a housing, then the device is closed manually or automatically around the capsule.
It is important to correctly position the capsule so that the device closes correctly around the latter and a good seal is thus achieved to ensure good conditions of extraction. Bad positioning may damage the capsule, and thus affect the conditions of extraction. The loading of the capsule must also be easy, without trial and error as to the correct position of the capsule in the device. The loading must also be as rapid as possible and not require excessive manipulations. Hence, devices exist that propose the insertion of the capsule in a vertical plane and the movement of the extraction or infusion parts along a horizontal plane around the capsule. Such systems have the advantages of allowing a loading from the top piggy-bank fashion, and makes for rapid loading. The positioning of the capsule is then taken over by the movement of a movable part that pushes the capsule against another part such as a water heater. However, these devices are complex to produce and are not suitable for low-cost and therefore entry-level coffee machines for the consumer market. They are therefore usually intended for the business market such as restaurants, bars or communities. For example, patent application WO 98/47418 relates to a device for the extraction of pre-measured inserts in which the inserts are inserted vertically and are extracted horizontally. The disadvantage of this device is that it comprises two movable parts for the extraction, which makes the mechanical principle more complicated.
WO 2005/004683 relates to a capsule brewing device comprising: a first part; a second part that can be moved relative to the first part; a housing for the capsule and defining, in a closed position of the movable part against the fixed part, an extraction position of the capsule along an axis in said housing; an insertion and positioning part comprising means for guiding the capsule arranged so as to insert the capsule by gravity and position said capsule in an intermediate position; a drink pouring system; and the second movable part is so arranged and constructed to move the capsule from the intermediate position into the extraction position when the device is closed.
EP 1 721 553 discloses a brewing unit for coffee machines using capsules. The unit has a front part with a beverage outlet and a rear part with a hot water inlet. The front part and the rear part are mounted in-between a pair of facing shoulder guide members. The front part is movable in-between these guide members to be urged against the rear part so as to form with the rear part a brewing chamber for accommodating a capsule to be extracted, whereby an unoccupied volume is left in front of the front member between the guide members within the machine.
EP 1 659 547 relates to a beverage machine for making infusions, in particular, espresso coffee. The machine includes an infusion chamber within a brewing unit that has a movable front part with a return spring and a beverage outlet duct that extends through the assembly's outer housing. The movable front part cooperates with a rear part that is movable within the housing and that can be pushed against the movable front part to compress the return spring whereby the outlet duct slides through the assembly's outer housing. The pod is passed through the external housing to the infusion chamber via a rigid pod feed channel and then the pod is transferred into the infusion chamber by an external bushing on the movable rear part of the brewing unit which is provided with a cam-like path for moving the rear part. This arrangement involves several problems. The pod must be moved during the closure of the brewing chamber and this can cause blocking and it also makes the retaining means of the pod more complex. Moreover, opening and closing the brewing chamber involves simultaneously a linear displacement of the movable rear part within the housing, of the movable front part within the housing and of the outlet duct through the housing which increases the risk of hyper-guiding and jamming or improper alignment of the various parts that linearly move one relative to another. The fluid system comprises a moving assembly which makes the fluid system more complex to assemble. When upon extraction brewing unit is re-opened for removing the pod, pressurized water contained within the infusion chamber may project outside the housing. Furthermore, an unoccupied volume is left within the machine between the front member and the casing when the outlet duct is in its retracted position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,260,190 and WO 2005/072574 disclose a coffee machine having a removable drawer for positioning a coffee can therein. The drawer can be slid horizontally into the coffee machine and lifted towards a water injection arrangement. WO 2006/023309 discloses a coffee machine with a slidable drawer for the introduction of a coffee cartridge into the machine. The drawer is movable between an open and a closed position and has two cartridge half-shells that are pivotable against each other to form a brewing chamber when the drawer is in the closed position and pivotable apart when the drawer is slid out from the machine. U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,251 discloses a coffee machine having a horizontally slidable drawer for positioning a capsule therein. When slid into the machine, the drawer can be moved upwards towards a fixed capsule cage for form a brewing chamber for a capsule. EP 1 566 126 discloses a coffee machine with a vertical brewing unit for accommodating coffee pods. The brewing unit has a fixed upper part and a movable lower part for holding a pod and that can be pulled up for closing the brewing unit and let down for inserting or removing a pod.
Further brewing units are disclosed in EP 0 730 425, EP 0 862 882, EP 1 219 217, EP 1 480 540, EP 1 635 680, EP 1 669 011, EP 1 774 878, EP 1 776 026, EP 1 893 064, FR 2 424 010, U.S. Pat. No. 3,260,190, U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,774, U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,152, U.S. Pat. No. 7,131,369, US 2005/0106288, US 2006/0102008, WO 2005/002405, WO 2005/016093, WO 2006/005756, WO 2006/066626 and WO 2007/135136.


A method and apparatus for hydrocarbon management including generating an image of a subsurface formation by: obtaining simultaneous-source survey data, an earth model, and a first and a second velocity model of the subsurface formation; generating synthetic survey data with at least one of the earth model, the first velocity model, and the second velocity model. The method and apparatus may include directly migrating the simultaneous-source survey data; migrating the synthetic survey data; and subtracting the migrated synthetic survey data from the migrated simultaneous-source survey data. The method and apparatus may include subtracting the synthetic survey data from the simultaneous-source survey data; and directly migrating the result of the subtraction. The method and apparatus may include generating an artifact-reduced image.

This section is intended to introduce various aspects of the art, which may be associated with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. This discussion is believed to assist in providing a framework to facilitate a better understanding of particular aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that this section should be read in this light, and not necessarily as admissions of prior art.
An important goal of seismic prospecting is to accurately image subsurface structures commonly referred to as reflectors. Seismic prospecting is facilitated by acquiring raw seismic data during performance of a seismic survey. During a seismic survey, one or more seismic sources generate seismic energy (e.g., a controlled explosion or a sustained vibrational signal) which is delivered into the earth. Seismic waves are reflected from subsurface structures and are received by a number of seismic sensors or "receivers" (e.g., geophones). The seismic data received by the seismic sensors is processed in an effort to create an accurate mapping of the subsurface formation. The processed data is then examined with a goal of identifying geological structures that may contain hydrocarbons.
Simultaneous-source acquisition may increase the efficiency of a seismic survey by activating ("firing" or "shooting") multiple sources in succession and allowing their signals to overlap or interfere in time. The overlapping data can be exploited to lower data acquisition costs by spending fewer days in the field. It can also be used to improve image quality by illuminating the subsurface from multiple directions. The overlapping signals may come from multiple sources on (or towed-by) a single vessel or platform, sources on (or towed-by) different vessels or platforms, or a combination of both.
Simultaneous-source survey data poses problems for conventional seismic data processing algorithms, such as migration. Seismic migration creates images of the subsurface by back-propagating data into models (e.g., velocity models) of the subsurface from receiver locations and correlating against shot-time signatures (source activations) that have been forward-propagated into the subsurface model. Each simultaneous-source datum is the recorded sum of energy corresponding to two or more sources, including energy corresponding to multiple reflectors. When migrating simultaneous-source survey data, each shot wavefield may correctly image against the respective receiver data. Unfortunately, each shot wavefield may also be falsely correlated against receiver data generated by the other sources. These false correlations, or crosstalk, will not obey the correct travel time relationships to form an image and will, instead, appear as noise (e.g., artifacts) in the subsurface image.
Additionally, a frequent practice with conventional, single-shot data is to record the migrated image as a function of incidence angle at each subsurface location. Simultaneous-source survey data are often recorded from shots at different offsets, corresponding to different incidence angles in the subsurface. There is no simple way within conventional migration algorithms to separate the coincident contributions of sources with different offsets at the same receiver location.
A standard way to avoid the problems of crosstalk and/or offset mixing is to first separate the simultaneous-source survey data into its component shot records by a process known as "deblending." Generally, deblending includes a class of seismic processing techniques that attempt to reconstruct the data that would have been acquired with conventional, non-overlapping source activations. Deblending algorithms may first filter away the interference in some domain where interference appears random. Then, an inversion problem may be solved with the separate, deblended outputs. While deblending can work well for some data, it is inherently an underdetermined problem and relies on mathematical assumptions about the character of seismic data as well as sorting and filtering operations to tease apart the component shot records. Geologically-important signals may be mis-characterized as noise. Signals attenuated by deblending may be difficult or impossible to recover. Although the deblended shot records may be migrated without concern for either crosstalk or offset mixing, deblending is an approximate and time-consuming process. The approach may also result in significant computational expense and complexity when solving a large number of inversion problems with the twin objectives of ensuring that the output data have low levels of interference and successfully reconstruct the input simultaneous-source survey data.
New techniques for imaging with simultaneous-source survey data could beneficially reduce or mitigate the problems of crosstalk, offset mixing, and deblending. By resolving these problems, more accurate subsurface images could be utilized to more accurately and efficiently identify and/or characterize geological formations that potentially contain hydrocarbons.

Direct migration of simultaneous-source survey data


The present disclosure provides a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device comprises a substrate, a plurality of isolation regions in the substrate and an active region surrounded by the isolation regions. A p-type doped region is interposed between two n-type doped regions in the substrate. A buried gate structure is formed in the substrate and disposed between the p-type doped region and the n-type doped region. The buried gate structure comprises a gate conductive material, a gate insulating layer disposed over the gate conductive material and a gate liner surrounding the gate conductive material and the gate insulating layer. A plurality of contact plugs are formed on the p-type doped region and the plurality of n-type doped regions.

Over the past few decades, as semiconductor fabrication technology continues to improve, sizes of electronic devices are reduced correspondingly. As the size of a transistor is reduced to about a few nanometers in length, various problems such as current leakage, short channeling effect, drain-induced barrier lowering, threshold voltage decrease and/or subthreshold swing increase may arise because of the decrease of the transistor channel length. These problems may result in a significant drop in transistor performance.
Therefore, the length of the transistor channel cannot continue to be reduced indefinitely. Thus, there is still a significant need to improve the fabrication method of transistors.
This Discussion of the Background section is for background information only. The statements in this Discussion of the Background are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this section constitutes a prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this Discussion of the Background section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.

Semiconductor device and method for fabricating the same


The present invention relates to a method for identifying individuals with Parkinson's disease and/or individuals at risk for developing Parkinson's disease, comprising screening nucleic acids from the individual for a mutation in the ADH1C gene, as well as different uses thereof.

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that strikes men and women alike. It is estimated that it affects about 15 out of 10,000 individuals and usually it first appears at an age of about 55-60 years. Despite considerable efforts, the reason for the symptom-causing degeneration of the midbrain dopamine neurons in patients afflicted by this crippling, non-curable disorder is not known. Moreover, while many of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease can be mimicked by lesions or neurotoxin administration to experimental animals, the disease itself is not known in any other species than man, thus hampering research aimed at understanding the etiology and the development of new therapies.
Exposure to toxic compounds in the environment remains one hypothetical cause of the disease although epidemiological studies have generated few clues as to its etiology. More recently, an interest in familial forms of the disease has indicated the presence of genetic components and linkage to an area on chromosome 4 has been reported and is discussed in more detail below.
Thus, in recent linkage studies, autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive types of Parkinson's disease have been mapped to several different loci in the human genome. Although these types of Parkinson's disease often differ from sporadic Parkinson's disease and constitute only a small fraction of the total patient population, the reported loci might confer susceptibility also for idiopatic forms of Parkinson's disease.
Polymeropoulos et al. (Science 274, p. 1197 (1996)) mapped autosomal dominant Parkinson to chromosome 4q21-q23. They called this area "PARK1". Later, they found a mutation in the gene for alpha-synuclein which segregated with the disease in one large Italian and three Greek kindreds and which they could not find in healthy control individuals. A mutation in the α-synuclein gene was identified in the families with Parkinson's disease (Polymeropoulos et al., Science 276, p. 2045-2047 (1997)). However, in spite of large efforts by other groups to find synuclein mutations in their own patients, they failed to identify any mutations in the alpha-synuclein gene in their material.
Interestingly, Vaughan et al. (Hum. Mol. Genet. 7, 751 (1998)) have reported one German family with autosomal dominant Parkinsonian to show linkage to the PARK1 region 4q21-q23. In this family, no mutations in alpha-synuclein could be identified. Said authors suggest that there might be another gene in the same locus that might account for the disease. In this case, the synuclein mutation in the Italian and Greek kindreds may be a marker that segregates with the "true" disease gene.
In WO 00/00621 the human gene encoding alcohol dehydrogenase 7 (ADH7) was shown to be associated with the development of Parkinson's disease and Parkinson related mutations (M1-M7) in the wildtype ADH7 gene were identified.
Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) are zinc metalloenzymes that oxidize alcohols to aldehydes or ketones. In addition to ethanol these enzymes also make important modifications to retinol, steroids, and fatty acids. The mammalian ADH system is divided into six classes, ADH1-ADH6, whereof five have been identified in man. ADH1C (formerly known as ADH3) is located within a cluster of alcoholdehydrogenases on human chromosome 4q21-q23. ADH1C is involved in retinoic acid synthesis from retinal. Since retinoic acid is likely to be of importance for dopamine neuron development and maintenance, genetic disturbances in these enzymes may render dopamine neurons of carriers more susceptible to stressors and may thus enhance the deleterious effects of environmental toxins.
Parkinson's disease is complex and the causes of the disease are multiple. Genetic mutations in alcohol or aldehyde dehydrogenases may constitute heritable risk factors for Parkinson's disease and can provide a link between endogenous metabolic pathways and the outside world (such as dietary retinal and toxic aldehydes). Thus, the more genetic mutations identified, the bigger the chance to develop a reliable diagnostic and prognostic tool for the disease.
Today there is no way of predicting or diagnosing Parkinson's disease prior to the onset of the symptoms. When symptoms occur, patients have typically already lost a very large number, in reality, the majority, of their dopamine nerve cells. Accordingly, a method for prediction and early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease would be very valuable.


A personal inhaling apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an ultrasonic personal inhaler with ultra-fine mist transducer that delivers both cool and warm mist using a heater, a face mask, a fluid supply means, and a power source including batteries and/or corded power supply. The apparatus may include a receptacle for a scented pad placed in contact with the heater. Indicators functioning in a pre-determined manner provide indication on if the device is delivering a cool mist, a warm mist, is switched-OFF, a level of charge of a power source, and a level of the fluid in the fluid supply means.

A variety of inhaling devices are available in the market. One kind of inhaler, i.e., a steam inhaler is generally available as a table top inhaler or a hand-held inhaler. Generally, the table top inhalers may be limited by the length of the cord, making them not portable. User safety pre-cautions are necessary to prevent injury due to spilling boiling water on the user if not properly handled leading to the inhalers being used as a counter or table top device. The hand-held steam inhaler devise may also be cord restricted thus making them less-portable. Moreover, steam inhalers typically provide a warm mist output (steam requires boiling water). Cool mist inhalers using ultrasonic generated mist can only produce a cool vapor and many are battery operated and used as facial coolers when the user is in a high heat environment.
Therefore, there exists a need to provide an improved personal inhaling/cooling device that is more portable and provide a user with both warm and cool mists as needed.


A magnetic recording/reproducing device of the present invention in which a tape drawn from a cassette wraps around a rotary head cylinder at a prescribed angle for recording information on or reproducing information from the tape includes: a substrate on which the rotary head cylinder is provided; a tape guide post for drawing the tape from the cassette and causing the tape to wrap around the rotary head cylinder; a tape guide post drive section for driving the tape guide post; and a post stopper for placing the tape guide post at a prescribed position, the substrate including a reinforcing wall in the vicinity of the rotary head cylinder, the reinforcing wall being in a vertical plane with respect to a horizontal plane of the substrate, and the post stopper being provided on the vertical reinforcing wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording/reproducing device used for a videotape recorder, an audio tape recorder, etc., which provides reliable operation whilst being compact in size.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, a conventional magnetic recording/reproducing device will be described below.
FIG. 3 is a top view of a conventional magnetic recording/reproducing device. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the conventional magnetic recording/reproducing device taken along line Bxe2x80x94B of FIG. 3.
In FIGS. 3 and 4, reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate, reference numeral 1a denotes a horizontal plane of the substrate 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a rotary head cylinder mounted on the horizontal plane 1a of the substrate 1, reference numeral 3 denotes a cassette placed on the substrate 1, reference numeral 4 denotes a (magnetic) tape of the cassette 3, reference numerals 5, 6, 7 and a denote tape guide members for guiding the tape 4, reference numeral 9a denotes a first post stopper, and reference numeral 9b denotes a second post stopper. The post stoppers 9a and 9b have the same structure. Reference numeral 10 denotes a screw used for attaching the post stoppers 9a and 9b to the horizontal plane 1a of the substrate 1. Reference numeral 11 denotes a vertical reinforcing wall provided on the substrate 1 in the vicinity of the rotary head cylinder 2. The reinforcing wall 11 lies in a vertical plane with respect to the horizontal plane 1a of the substrate 1. The vertical reinforcing wall 11 is provided on the substrate 1, since the substrate 1 is required to be precisely maintained in a prescribed condition (e.g., a size and form of the substrate is maintained) and is required to be strong in a region around the rotary head cylinder 2. It is common practice in the field of magnetic recording/reproducing devices to provide a vertical reinforcing wall, such as the vertical reinforcing wall 11, on a substrate of a magnetic recording/reproducing device for this purpose. Reference numeral 12 denotes a first roller post, and reference numeral 18 is a second roller post. As will be described below, the first roller post 12 and the second roller post 18 have the same structure and each of the first roller post 12 and the second roller post 18 includes a roller shaft 13, a roller 14, which is supported by the roller shaft 13 so as to be rotatable about the roller shaft 13, an upper flange 15, and a lower flange 16. The upper flange 15 and the lower flange 16 are placed on the roller shaft 13 and respectively define top and bottom positions of the tape 4 which is caused to wrap around the roller 14. The roller shaft 13 is positioned in a roller post guide member 17 through pressing or the like.
The operation of the above-described conventional magnetic recording/reproducing device will now be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.
The first roller post 12 is moved using the roller post guide member 17 by a tape guide post drive section (not shown) until the upper flange 15 and the lower flange 16 of the first roller post 12 come into contact with the first post stopper 9a, so that the movement of the first roller post 12 is stopped by the first post stopper 9 and is thereby placed in the prescribed position shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The second roller post 18 is placed in the prescribed position shown in FIG. 3 in a similar manner. In this case, the upper flange 15 and the lower flange 16 of the second roller post 18 are in contact with the second post stopper 9b. The tape guide members 5 and 7 are also moved to their respective prescribed positions shown in FIG. 3 by the tape guide post drive section (not shown). In this operation, the tape 4 is drawn out from the cassette 3 by the motion of the first roller post 12 in a direction away from the cassette 3, the second roller post 18 and the tape guide members 5 and 7, so that the tape 4 is put in the state shown in FIG. 3.
In FIG. 3, E and F denote attachment spans which define the mounting precision of the first post stopper 9a and the second post stopper 9b with respect to the substrate 1, and H denotes the depth of the conventional magnetic recording/reproducing device.
In this conventional structure, in which space is required for attaching the first post stopper 9a and the second post stopper 9b to the horizontal plane 1a of the substrate 1 by screws 10, operational elements cannot be placed in the region around the rotary head cylinder 2, the first post stopper 9a and the second post stopper 9b. As a result, the conventional magnetic recording/reproducing device is required to be larger so as to provide such elements. Moreover, the first roller post 12 and the second roller post 18 provided in the region around the rotary head cylinder 2 are required to be placed in their respective prescribed positions with high precision so as to provide correct and reliable operation of the rotary head cylinder 2 in recording/reproducing information to/from the tape 4, and thus, in the first instance, the first post stopper 9a and the second post stopper 9b are required to be mounted on the substrate 1 with high precision.
In order to achieve such highly precise mounting of the first post stopper 9a and the second post stopper 9b, the attachment spans E and F of the first post stopper 9a and the second post stopper 9b are required to be large so as to provide necessary fine adjustment for the precise placement of the first and second post stopper 9a and 9b. However, the rotary head cylinder 2 Is In the vicinity of the first and second post stoppers 9a and 9b, and thus it is not possible to make the mounting spans E and F sufficiently large to achieve the required high precision. Furthermore, if the attachment span F is lengthened, a distance between the rotary head cylinder 2 and the reinforcing wall 11 provided on the substrate 1 is increased, which creates the following problems. First, If this distance becomes too large, then the effect of the reinforcing wall 11 of strengthening the region around the rotary head cylinder 2 is not provided second, the depth H of the conventional magnetic recording/reproducing device is increased, such that a sufficiently compact device is not achieved.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there Is provided a magnetic recording/reproducing device in which a tape drawn from a cassette wraps around a rotary head cylinder at a prescribed angle for recording information on or reproducing information from the tape includes: a substrate on which the rotary head cylinder is provided; a tape guide post for drawing the tape from the cassette and causing the tape to wrap around the rotary head cylinder; a tape guide post drive section for driving the tape guide post; and a post stopper for placing the tape guide post at a prescribed position, the substrate including a reinforcing wall in the vicinity of the rotary head cylinder, the reinforcing wall being in a vertical plane with respect to a horizontal plane of the substrate, and the post stopper being provided on the vertical reinforcing wall.
In one embodiment of this invention, the position of the post stopper on the vertical reinforcing wall can be finely adjusted such that the post stopper places the tape guide post at the prescribed position with high precision.
In one embodiment of this invention, the tape guide post includes a first tape guide post and a second tape guide post, and the post stopper includes a first post stopper and a second post stopper for respectively placing the first and second tape guide posts in respective first and second prescribed positions, the first and second post stoppers being respectively provided upstream and downstream of the tape traversal direction around the rotary head cylinder.
In one embodiment of this invention, the post stopper is provided on a back face of the reinforcing wall of the substrate and the substrate has a hole through which a part of the post stopper passes so as to be engaged with the tape guide post and place the tape guide post at the prescribed position.
In one embodiment of this invention, the first and second post stoppers are integrally structured with each other.
In one embodiment of this invention, the integrally structured first and second post stoppers are fixed to the vertical reinforcing wall by screws.
In one embodiment of this invention, the fixing positions of the first and second post stoppers on the vertical reinforcing wall can be finely adjusted such that the first and second post stoppers respectively place the first and second tape guide posts at the respective first and second prescribed positions with high precision.
The magnetic recording/reproducing device according to the present invention includes: a substrate on which a rotary head cylinder is provided; a tape guide post for drawing a tape from a cassette and causing the tape to wrap around the rotary head cylinder at a prescribed angle; a tape guide post drive section for driving the tape guide post; and a post stopper used for placing the tape guide post at a prescribed position, in which the substrate includes a reinforcing wall in the vicinity of the rotary head cylinder, the reinforcing wall being in a vertical plane with respect to a horizontal plane of the substrate and having the post stopper fixed thereto.
With this structure of the present invention, it is possible to provide a compact, reliable and precisely structured magnetic recording/reproducing device in which a post stopper can be mounted on a substrate with high precision by employing large attachment spans without requiring a space for attaching the post stopper to the substrate in a region around the rotary head cylinder.
Thus the invention described herein makes possible the advantages of providing a magnetic recording/reproducing device in which a post stopper can be mounted with high precision without requiring a space for attaching the post stopper around a rotary head cylinder.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and, understanding the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying figures.

Magnetic recording/reproducing device having a post stopper fixed to a vertical reinforcing wall


A replacement unit includes a bottom member and a guide groove. The bottom member is supported at one of plural support members. The guide groove provided at the bottom member, is guided by plural protrusions provided at the support member and disposed in a row, and extends in an installation direction along which the replacement unit is installed in a device body from sideward of the device body.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a replacement unit and an image forming device.
2. Related Art
Related art image forming devices include, for example, plural process cartridges (replacement units) that are detachably retained in an image forming device are described.
Each process cartridge includes a photoreceptor and at least one electrophotographic processing means that acts on the photoreceptor.
The plural process cartridges are arrayed in a horizontal direction. Circular rod-form pin members that extend in a mounting direction are formed at side portions of the process cartridges. When a process cartridge is being inserted into the body of the device, a pin member formed at the process cartridge that is being inserted slides into a positioning hole provided at a process cartridge that is already mounted in the device body.

Replacement unit and image forming device


A method of protecting data on a recording medium against an adjacent track erase (ATE) effect, and a recording medium having a program therefor are provided. The method includes accumulating a number of turns of write operations in respective sub-areas, wherein the recording medium is divided into a plurality of sub-areas; and rewriting data on a sub-area of which an accumulated number of turns of write operations is greater than a limited number of turns of write operations. Accordingly, before data written on an adjacent track can be damaged by the ATE effect, data is rewritten and safely preserved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of protecting data on a recording medium, and more particularly, to a method of protecting data against an adjacent track erase (ATE) effect, and a recording medium storing a program for executing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) is a recording device used for storing information. Generally, information is written on concentric tracks on one surface of one or more magnetic recording disks. The disk is rotatably mounted on a spindle motor, and information is accessed by a read/write head mounted on an actuator arm that is rotated by a voice coil motor. The voice coil motor is excited by a current to rotate the actuator and move the read/write head. The read/write head detects the occurrence of a magnetic change on the surface of the disk and reads the information recorded on the surface of the disk. To write information on a data track, a current is supplied to the read/write head and a magnetic field is created, thereby magnetizing the surface of the disk.
By reducing the distance between the head and the disk, the recording density can be increased. To reduce the distance, the size of the head is reduced and the head is disposed as close as possible to the disk. However, if the distance between the head and the disk is reduced, overwrite on adjacent tracks may occur from the magnetic field caused by the head, and thus data written on the adjacent tracks is deleted by an ATE effect.
Meanwhile, write parameter-setting methods capable of minimizing the ATE effect are disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-199860 (published Jul. 15, 2004), U.S. Patent Application Publication Ser. No. 2004-25874 (Mar. 24, 2004), and Korea Patent Publication No. 2004-52030 (Jun. 19, 2004).
However, the ATE effect is stronger when iterative recording is performed on a predetermined track. Thus, there is a need for a method of protecting data recorded on a recording medium.

Method of protecting data on recording medium and recording medium storing program for executing the method


A deflector shield is defined by a one-piece homogeneous body of polymeric/copolymeric synthetic transparent plastic material defined by a central portion having an opening and a peripheral portion generally surrounding the opening, the deflector shield is slipped upon a dental air/water/spray syringe and when thus positioned a concave surface is positioned immediately adjacent an end of the syringe and deflects the material impinging thereagainst and redirects the flow path of the impinging material away from the operator/dentist/assistant.

An indispensable part of the dental operatory equipment is the dental air/water/spray syringe. A conventional air/water/spray syringe includes a hand piece or handle, a pair of buttons and a nozzle which normally includes a central port or orifice for emitting water, a plurality of peripheral orifices generally spaced 120.degree. from each other for emitting air. The two buttons are selectively operable for controlling the emission of air alone, water alone, or both in the form of a spray or a mist. Such an air/water/spray syringe is used almost every time a dentist provides care for a patient, whether it is only by way of a dental examination or actual treatment. Frequently a dentist may direct air to dry an area moist with saliva or blood for better visibility, or may direct an air/water/spray or jet to clean debris. Also, the prevailing use of adhesive resins has become an essential part of practicing dentistry, and before applying such adhesive resins, the tooth surface is "conditioned" (etched) by applying an acid, such as phosphoric acid, for varying periods of time. Such acid must be flushed by directing a pin point copious water spray to the area for at least sixty (60) seconds. During this time the dentist has to keep his eye on the very spot to be rinsed to insure that proper rinsing has been achieved. During such pressurized application of air/water or an air/water spray into the mouth of a patient, the latter and any entrained admixed material can be reflected outwardly toward the dentist/operator/assistant. Such reflection outwardly from a patient's mouth is particularly common during cavity preparation due to the very nature of this operation. Prior to placing the filling material into the prepared tooth cavity, air and/or water is directed into the prepared cavity to cleanse and dry ,the same, and the cavity itself reflects the latter fluid and any materials admixed therewith back toward the operator's/dentist's/assistant's neck, eyes or the like. Such reflected admixed fluid might well be a mixture of saliva, blood, acid or similar debris. Needless to say, the latter creates a significant and serious risk, particularly in this day and age of presently incurable communicable diseases, such as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) as the end effect of HIV (Humanimmuno Deficiency Virus).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,036 issued on Jan. 3, 1984 in the name of Oddvin Lokken discloses an anti-splash device for attachment to a dental tool which delivers water from the head thereof during use. The anti-splash device is an elongated, hollow member which includes an interior member for securing the hollow member to the head of the dental tool. The hollow member is thus in surrounding relationship to and spaced from the water delivery apparatus, and though it intends to provide anti-splash functions, the very construction thereof and particularly the space between the anti-splash device and the dental tool prevents optimum intended functioning thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,992 issued on Sep. 16, 1986 to Oddvin Lokken discloses another anti-splash device which is also attached to a dental tool which delivers an aqueous fluid from a nozzle. The anti-splash device is an inverted U-shaped member having a base and integral opposed legs depending therefrom. One of the legs has a bore through which the nozzle of the dental tool projects and the base provides an area through which an associated tooth can be viewed. The U-shaped nature of this anti-splash device prevents the aqueous fluid from being directed at all desired portions of an associated tooth, particularly posterior regions thereof, due to the existence of the depending leg opposite the nozzle. Thus, while a degree of anti-splash is certainly provided by this device, its usefulness is suspect.
Other patented dental devices of lesser interest include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,720,702 in the name Hyman Freedman, 2,731,722 in the name of Jesse Wilen, 3,909,867 in the name Gunnar Hogsell and 4,850,868 in the name of Gerard Wright et al.

Deflector shield for a dental air/water/spray syringe


A precharge signal generation circuit includes a control signal generation unit configured to activate a control signal in response to a read command or write command and a precharge signal generation unit configured to use a clock signal in a period when the control signal is activated to activate a precharge signal at a time point when a delay time passes from an input of the read command or the write command to precharge signal generation circuit.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a precharge generation circuit and a semiconductor device including the same, and more particularly, to a method for generating a precharge signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A memory device typically receives a command from the outside and performs active and precharge operations. The memory device performs a read operation or a write operation during the active operation. During the read operation, the memory device outputs data from a memory cell, and during the write operation, the memory device inputs data to a memory cell. Even after the read or write operation is completed, signals corresponding to the inputted or outputted data may remain in a bit line and data input/output lines through which the data input/output operation was performed. The respective signal lines are to be precharged to a preset level, in order to smoothly perform the next read operation or write operation. Therefore, the memory device performs a precharge operation to precharge the respective signal lines between the active operation periods.
The precharge operation may include manual precharge and auto precharge operations. The manual precharge operation is performed in response to an input of a command from an external device of the memory device, and the auto precharge accompanies a write or read operation. An auto precharge operation with a write operation is performed at a time point when a write recovery time (hereafter, referred to as tWR) passes from an input of a write command. Furthermore, an auto precharge operation with a read operation is performed at a time point when a read to precharge time (hereafter, referred to as tRTP) passes from an input of a read command. The values of the tWR and tRTP may be stored in a mode resister set (MRS) based on the specifications of Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC).
Here, the auto precharge operation is performed in response to a precharge signal which is activated by a precharge signal generation circuit at a time point when the tWR passes from an input of a write command or the tRTP passes from an input of a read command.
FIG. 1 is a waveform diagram explaining the operation of a conventional precharge signal generation circuit.
Hereafter, referring to FIG. 1, the operation of the conventional precharge signal generation circuit during the auto precharge operation with the write operation will be described.
The precharge signal generation circuit receives a clock signal CLK transferred from a source clock signal SCLK, from a time point 101 when an active command ACT is applied. Then, the precharge signal generation circuit activates a precharge signal PCG at a time point 103 when a tWR passes from an application of a write command WT. When a read command RD is applied, the precharge signal generation circuit activates the precharge signal PCG at a time point when a tRTP passes from an application of the read command RD. The tWR and tRTP are defined based on the period of the clock signal CLK. For example, the tWR may be a time corresponding to six clocks, and the tRTP may be a time corresponding to four clocks. Here, the precharge signal generation circuit receives the clock signal CLK from the time point when the active command ACT is applied.
In the precharge signal generation circuit, however, the clock signal CLK is actually used is not the time point 101 where the active command ACT is applied, but a time point 102 where the write command WT or the read command RD is applied after the active command ACT is applied. That is because the time point when the precharge signal PCG is activated is defined on the basis of the clock signal CLK, from not the time point 101 when the active command ACT is applied, but the time point 102 when the write command WT or the read command RD is applied. Therefore, during a period from the time point 101 when the active command ACT is applied to the time point 102 when the write command WT or the read command RD is applied, the clock signal CLK may be supplied to the precharge signal generation circuit and, therefore, may cause the undesirable current consumption of the precharge signal generation circuit.

Precharge signal generation circuit, semiconductor device including the same, and method for generating precharge signal


An image forming process of an image forming material comprising a support and provided thereon, a photosensitive layer and a covering layer in that order comprises imagewise exposing the material by laser beam scanning, and peeling the covering film from the exposed material to form an image on the support or on the covering film, wherein said photosensitive layer contains a colorant, an addition-polymerizable or cross-linkable compound and a salt of a cationic dye with a borate anion represented by the following Formula (1):. Formula (1) ##STR1##

Image forming materials using a photosensitive material such as a photopolymer and methods of forming images thereby are known, and some of them have so far been utilized in the preparation of a color proof for color correction in printing. For example, there is known a method of forming images by the steps of preparing an image forming material by coating on a support a photosensitive composition containing an addition-polymerizable or cross-linkable compound and a photopolymerization initiator, and if necessary, a colorant and a binder comprising an organic high polymer, exposing the photosensitive composition layer to harden its exposed portion, and dissolving an unexposed portion to remove it.
However, conventional methods which employ a liquid developer have problems concerning environmental protection and safety for workers, in addition to a disadvantage of requiring a large apparatus.
On the other hand, there have also been known methods of forming images according to the so-called dry process without liquid processing which processes a photosensitive material by peel developing or transfer developing.
In a method of forming images by use of such peel developing, as seen in, for example, Japanese Pat. Exam. Pub. No. 22901/1968, a material comprising a transparent support, a photopolymerizable composition layer and a second support is exposed and, then, the transparent support is peeled from the second support, so that a positive image is formed on one support and a negative image on the other support.
In a method which uses transfer developing, an image is formed by exposing an image through a color separation negative or mask on an image forming material comprising a support having thereon at least a photopolymerizable composition layer, and forming an image on an image receiving body by pressing and, if necessary, heating the exposed photopolymerizable composition layer with its surface in contact with the image receiving body and thereby transferring the unexposed portion to the image-receiving body, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,060,023, 3,060,024, 3,060,025, Japanese Pat. O.P.I. Pub. No. 147154/1988. These methods of forming images according to the dry processing are advantageous over the method using a liquid developer in environment pollution control, safety maintenance and apparatus downsizing.
With the progress of image processing technique, light source and image forming technique in recent years, there has come to be demanded a photosensitive material which is sensitive to light of longer wavelength. However, in the photosensitive compositions utilized in the foregoing methods of forming images, there have been used photopolymerization initiators, such as aromatic ketones including benzophenone, thioxanthone, quinone, thioacridone, and benzoin, benzil, benzylketal, which are sensitive in the ultraviolet wavelength region.
Various attempts have so far been made to make the photosensitive materials sensitive to a wavelength longer than that of visible light, as seen, for example, in Japanese Pat. O.P.I. Pub. Nos. 2528/1972, 155292/1979, 84183/1973, 151024/1979, 88005/1985, 40302/1983, 56403/1984, 189340/1984, 69/1990 and 189548/1990.
These photosensitive compositions are sensitive to visible light, but their sensitivity is not necessarily high enough to use practically. This necessitates a long exposing time and thereby impairs the efficiency of image formation by laser beam scanning exposure. In addition, these are not sensitive to a near infrared wavelength region corresponding to an oscillation wavelength of semiconductor lasers; therefore, semiconductor lasers which are the smallest and cheapest laser beam sources cannot be used.
Japanese Pat. O.P.I. Pub. No. 143044/1987 discloses a composition containing a novel photopolymerization initiator of cationic dye borate complex salt type, and a method of forming images by use of the initiator as well. However, the above patent specification does not disclose any initiator having a photosensitivity in the wavelength region of 780 nm or more which a semiconductor laser has; moreover, the method of forming images disclosed therein has a disadvantage of requiring complicated components such as micro-capsules.
Further, Japanese Pat. O.P.I. Pub. No. 4804/1990 discloses a photosensitive material, which is a combination of a cationic dye and a borate compound, and has a photosensitivity in the wavelength region of 600 to 900 nm to function as a photopolymerization initiator sensitive to a semiconductor laser. So far, however, there has not been known any method of forming color images by means of a simple dry process using a semiconductor laser and a photopolymerizable composition.


A series of novel EHop-016 derivatives is presented herein via designing and synthesizing compounds that mimics its more favorable “U-shaped” conformation that appears to be critical for inhibitory activity against Rac. Based on modeling studies on EHop-016, compounds with a more rigid structural conformation can mimic this “U-shaped” conformation would improve the anti-migration activity against metastatic cells. Compounds are disclosed that inhibit RhoGTPases that are useful for inhibiting hyperprofilerative and neoplastic diseases, for instance compounds of formula (I)

Many compounds are disclosed that inhibit Rho GTPases that are useful for inhibiting hyperprofilerative and neoplastic diseases. Specifically, the compounds inhibit the GTPases Rac and Cdc42 that are overactive or overexpressed in signaling pathways in cancer and metastasis. Methods for treatment of cancer and hyperproliferative diseases are disclosed.
The Rho GTPases Rac (Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate) and Cdc42 (cell division control protein 42 homolog) regulate cell functions governing cancer malignancy, including cell polarity, migration, and cell cycle progression. The Rho family of GTPases in humans consists of 20 different members, and aberrant behavior in their regulatory activity has been implicated in cancer and other diseases. More than 70 Guanine nucleotide Exchange Factors (GEFs) are known, which specifically activate one or more of the GTPases. In turn, the activated GTPases can specifically interact with over 60 downstream effectors. Dysregulation of one or more cellular processes can lead to release of malignant cells from their original locations, which subsequently can establish themselves in pre-metastatic niches in, for example, bone or lungs. It has been found that members of the Rho GTPase family, including Rac, Cdc42 and Rho, play key signaling roles in these processes.
Rho GTPases regulate migration and invasion, cytoskeletal organization, transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, vesicle trafficking, and cell-to-cell and cell-to-extracellular matrix adhesions. The Rho GTPases Rac and Cdc42 are potent inducers of actin polymerization and extension of actin structures at the leading edge of motile cells. In addition, Cdc42 plays a critical role in cell polarity, and thus, promotes directed and persistent migration.
Studies have implicated hyperactive Rac and Cdc42 with increased cancer cell survival, proliferation, and invasion, as well in Ras and other oncogene-mediated transformation. Furthermore, oncogenic cell surface receptors, such as tyrosine kinase, cytokine, and G protein coupled receptors, activate Rac and Cdc42 via regulation of their upstream effector GEFs. Accordingly, Rac and Cdc42 proteins are generally not mutated in cancer but rather overexpressed or hyperactivated. Even though ˜9% of melanomas contain an activating Rac(P29S) mutation, and the hyperactive splice variant Rac1b is overexpressed in some cancers, a majority of the Rac and Cdc42 in human cancer are activated due to upregulated GEFs.
Of the direct downstream effectors of Rac and Cdc42, p21-activated kinases (PAK) are overexpressed in a number of cancers and contribute to cancer transformation and progression by regulating key cellular functions, including cytoskeletal organization, cell migration, adhesion, growth, and development. Therefore, a number of PAK inhibitors have been developed as anti-cancer therapeutics. However, these have been limited by specificity, bioavailability, and toxicity, and have yet to successfully complete clinical trials.
In cancer patients, the ability of tumor cells to spread from primary tumors (and metastatic tumors) is the major cause of death. In the case that breast cancer is detected and treated prior to metastasis, the patient has higher probability of being cured of their disease. To successfully invade a secondary site, a cancer cell must complete a series of steps including separation from primary tumor (intravasation), invasion through surrounding tissues and basement membranes, entry and survival in the circulation, and arrest in a distant target organ (extravasation). During cancer cell invasion, tumor cell migration through tissues, frequently requires the degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and several proteins play a key role in this process. Moreover, invadopodia are actin-rich protrusive structures with associated matrix degradation activity and are believed to be important for tumor cells to penetrate the basement membrane of epithelia and blood vessels. The small GTPase Rac1, a member of the Ras superfamily of GTPases has been implicated in regulating migration and invasion of breast cancer cells. Rac1 is activated by GTP/GDP exchange factors (GEF) that are regulated via a myriad of cell surface receptors. Therefore, therapeutic strategies targeting the binding of Rac1 to GEFs are a rational means to inhibit migration of cancer cells.
The carbazole skeleton contained in many synthetic and natural compounds is the key structural motif of many biological activities that are related to this type of molecules.
Many carbazole derivatives are well known for their various pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatories, antibacterial, antitumor, anticonvulsant, antipsychotics, antidiabetics, and larvicidal properties. The cytotoxic activity of carbazole alkaloids has been related to their polycyclic, planar and aromatic structure. Some carbazole derivatives have been evaluated for their anti-tumor potential against several human tumor cell lines. The carbazole sulfonamide IG-105 is an antimitotic agent that inhibit microtubule assembly through specific interactions within tubulin structure. Modeling studies suggest that the dimethoxypyridine moiety and the carbazole group forms interactions with the hydrophobic pocket of tubulin, and that the sulfonamino group and the N atom of the carbazole forms hydrogen bonds. The HYL-6d derivative inhibits angiogenic proliferation and migration in HUVEC cells under pathological angiogenic conditions, which is critical in breast cancer progression and metastasis formation. The MHY407 is an epoxypropoxy carbazole derivative that effectively causes DNA damage by C-PARP production, topoisomerase II inhibition and cell cycle arrest at S phase by regulating cyclin D1, pRb, and p21 levels.
EHop-016 has recently been developed and inhibits metastatic cancer cell viability at concentrations of >5 μM. Results showed that EHop-016 inhibits Rac1-Vav2 interaction with IC50=1 μM, Rac1 downstream effector PAK1 by −60% at 2 μM, lamellipodia formation, and cell migration. EHop-016 and other compounds are described in PCT International Patent Application No. PCT/US2017/029921 (filed Apr. 27, 2017), which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
There is a need for new therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer and other hyperproliferative diseases. The Rac and Cdc42 GTPases are important cellular mediators that are hyperactive or overexpressed in metastatic tumors. Design of novel inhibitors of the activities of Rac and/or Cdc42 with improved activity, pharmacochemical profile and reduced toxicity is desirable.

Carbazole EHop-016 derivatives as anti-cancer and anti-migratory agents


A heat integrated hydrotreating process has been invented. The feedstock is a cracked hydrocarbon stock which is mixed with hydrogen to suppress coking before heating in a multiple tube furnace to reactor inlet temperature. A minor portion of the feedstock is mixed with hydrogen and heated to reactor inlet temperature by quenching the hot reactor effluent. The minor portion is fed directly to the hydrogenation reactor, bypassing the furnace. By the process, high level heat is recovered.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to heat integration of a catalytic hydrogenation process. More particularly the invention relates to preheating a portion of feedstock by indirect heat exchange with hot reactor effluent. Most particularly the invention relates to quenching the entire hot reactor effluent with a predetermined amount of feedstock.
2. Description of Other Related Methods in the Field
Hydrotreaters are employed in petroleum refineries to hydrogenate petroleum derived stocks. Hydrogenation removes sulfur, nitrogen, metals and other undesirable contaminants from the stock. Hydrogeneration also saturates olefinic and aromatic compounds rendering the stock more stable to thermal degradation as well as stabilizing color.
Hydrotreating is typically carried out in a packed bed of catalyst. Hydrotreating catalysts typically comprise a Group IV metal or a Group VI metal on a porous solid support. The most typical metals are nickel, Raney nickel, cobalt and molybdenum. Cobalt-molybdenum and nickel-molybdenum on an aluminum support are in wide commercial use in the industry for this purpose. The hydrogeneration reaction is carried out at a hydrogen partial pressure of 100 to 2000 psia and a temperature of 400.degree. F. to 800.degree. F.
A hydrotreater typically comprises a charge pump, a make-up hydrogen compressor, feed/effluent and hydrogen/effluent heat exchangers, a charge heater, one or more reactors, product separators, a recycle hydrogen compressor and product fractionators.
The feed/effluent and hydrogen/effluent exchangers are used to preheat the reactants. The charge heater supplies the remaining heat to bring the feed to reactor inlet temperature. The reactor effluent is cooled several hundred degrees before reaching the product separators. Heat is recovered by heat exchange with the reactants. Hydrogen and oil may be mixed either upstream or downstream of the feed/effluent exchangers. Mixing upstream of the exchangers provides greater temperature differentials, higher heat transfer coefficients and reduced fouling. This is typical of a feed which is fully vaporized in the exchangers. However, when a mixed phase is fed to the reactors and/or charge heaters this can be a problem except for small units with a single pass heater (less than 5000 barrels per day). In all but the small units the mixed hydrogen and oil must be fed to a multi-pass heater. To avoid maldistribution in the multiple passes there must be a flow control valve on each pass. Since two-phase mixtures are hard to measure and control the hydrogen and oil must be passed through separate heat exchangers trains.

Hydrotreater feed/effluent heat exchange


A silo rotary unloader monitor provides an indication of a rotational speed of the rotary collector ring of a material unloading device suspended within the top portion of a vertical silo. A limit switch has an actuating sensor biased into engagement with a sinusoidal cylindrical surface formed on a wheel mounted for rotation with the rotary collector ring. An electric circuit connected to the limit switch causes a remotely mounted electric signalling lamp or buzzer to flash or sound at a rate proportional to the rotary speed of the collector ring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to rotary machine monitors, and more particularly pertains to a monitor for providing a remote indication of the rotational speed of a silo unloader rotary collector ring. A conventional type of silo unloader for unloading grain through a top opening in a vertical side wall has a discharge chute and a stationarY collector ring suspended within the top portion of a silo by a cable harness. A rotary collector ring is rotationally mounted to the stationary collector ring and is attached to a frame member. A screw auger is mounted on the frame and a rotary drive causes rotation of the screw auger and rotation of the frame and rotary collector ring with respect to the stationary collector ring. The screw auger collects grain from the top of the silo and transmits the grain through the discharge chute exteriorly of the silo. The rotary collector ring is rotated by an electric motor drive through a belt system. Slipping of the drive belt can result in a substantial difference in the rotational speed of the rotary collector ring and the drive motor. Conventionally, an amp meter is utilized to provide a remote indication of the load on the drive motor to a ground level operation. The ground level operator controls a winch connected to the suspension harness for lowering the unloading apparatus within the silo, as the grain level therein decreases. During cold weather and wet conditions, the belt drive of the unloader slips with increasing regularity. Thus, the operator monitoring the amp meter observes a load reduction on the motor when the drive belt begins to slip. The operator then further lowers the apparatus within the silo, in the belief that the grain level has been reduced, thus reducing the load on the motor. In actuality, the unloader may already be submerged within the grain, thus preventing proper rotation of the device, due to the increased rotational resistance. In order to overcome this problem, the present invention provides a device which indicates the actual rotational speed of the rotary collector ring and provides a remote indication thereof to a ground level operator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of silo monitors are known in the prior art. A typical example of such a silo monitor is to be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,434, which issued to N. Marsh et al on Sept. 13, 1977. This patent discloses a device for monitoring the depth of silage in a silo which includes a plurality of vertically spaced sensors. An electrical circuit includes a visual display for indicating the amount of material within the silo. U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,120, which issued to J. Cloarec on Jul. 17, 1979, discloses a wheel velocity sensor for indicating the rotational speed of a rotary element. A tooth rotor and a stator with a detecting head are mounted proximate the rotor teeth. The detecting head of the stator contacts the face of a resilient seal which is coated with a low friction material. U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,339, which issued to K. Kuhnlein on Mar. 19, 1985, discloses a device for measuring and monitoring the angular velocity of the shaft of a rotating machine. A pluralitY of sensors are positioned adjacent the shaft of the rotating machine for generating sequential pulses with periods proportional to the angular velocity of the shaft. U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,156, which issued to T. Machino et al on May 19, 1987, discloses a tooth sensing wheel of the type utilized in anti-lock breaking systems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,603, which issued to R. Bitetti on Mar. 14, 1989, discloses a tachometric generator including an input shaft connected to a drive take-off frame a vehicle, a main shaft connected to the input shaft by a resilient coupling to an output shaft to an external mechanical transmission. The speed of rotation of these shafts is detected by a magneto-electric sensor.
While the above mentioned devices are directed to rotary machine monitors, none of these devices discloses a monitor for providing a remote indication of the actual rotational speed of the rotary collector ring of a friction driven rotary silo unloader. Inasmuch as the art is relatively crowded with respect to these various types of rotary machine monitors, it can be appreciated that there is a continuing need for and interest in improvements to such rotary machine monitors, and in this respect, the present invention addresses this need and interest.


A vehicle seat reclining device includes: a ratchet and a guide assembled to be rotatable relative to each other; a plurality of pawls respectively supported by a plurality of corresponding pairs of guide walls of the guide and configured to mesh with the ratchet; and a cam configured to press the pawls in a radial direction by a biasing force of a lock spring. The guide has: welding dowels configured to be welded to a seat frame, the respective welding dowels being formed between the respective pairs of guide walls; and a hooking hole formed between a specific pair of guide walls, an end portion of the lock spring being hooked in the hooking hole. In a state before the welding dowels are welded to the seat frame, a width between the specific pair of guide walls is larger than a width between another pair of guide walls.

Patent Literature JP-A-2018-23583 discloses a vehicle seat reclining device that includes a stepped lock mechanism capable of adjusting a backrest angle of a seatback by a constant pitch angle. The vehicle seat reclining device is a joint device that couples the seatback to a seat cushion in such a way that the backrest angle is adjustable. Specifically, the vehicle seat reclining device includes a ratchet and a guide that are constituted by substantial disk-shaped metal members assembled to be rotatable relative to each other, and a lock mechanism that locks the relative rotation between the ratchet and the guide.
The lock mechanism locks the relative rotation between the ratchet and the guide with the use of a plurality of pawls set on the guide being pressed against and meshed with inner circumferential teeth formed on an outer circumferential portion of the ratchet by biasing. The pawls are supported by the guide from both sides in the rotation direction and are guided to be movable inward and outward in the radial direction only.
In the guide that supports the pawls from both sides in the rotation direction, the width between guide walls that support the pawls may vary due to the influence of thermal strain caused by welding of the guide to a seat frame.


A technique for dynamically controlling performance parameters in a six degrees-of-freedom non-line-of-sight sensor subsystem is described. In certain embodiments, a magnetic field sensor is mounted on or proximate to an object to measure a parameter that varies with a position or orientation of the object, where the magnetic field sensor is part of a sensor calibration subsystem. The position or an orientation of the object is determined based on the parameter as indicated in an output of the magnetic field sensor. A receiver bandwidth and/or other operation parameter of the subsystem is dynamically adjusted during operation of the subsystem based on, for example, a transmitter-receiver distance or an operational state of the subsystem.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) visualization systems are starting to enter the mainstream consumer electronics marketplace. Near-to-eye display (NED) devices, such as head-mounted display (HMD) devices, can be used to display AR or VR content to users. AR devices may include transparent display elements that enable a user to see virtual content transposed over the user's view of the real world. Displayed objects that appear to be superimposed over the user's real-world view are commonly referred to as virtual objects or "holographic" objects. VR and AR visualization systems can provide users with entertaining, immersive three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments in which they can visually (and sometimes audibly) experience things they might not normally experience in real life.
At least some HMD devices include one or more sensors of various types. For example, some HMD devices include sensors such as cameras to facilitate 3D surface mapping, user head-tracking, etc. These cameras generally must be positioned and oriented very precisely in the device in order to provide a satisfactory experience for the user. Yet normal use of the device over time can cause the cameras to move to varying degrees, depending on the design of the device. A challenge in designing an HMD device or any of various other types of sensor platforms, therefore, is providing a sensor platform that is easily calibrated in the factory and that maintains a high degree of accuracy over the lifetime of the device. Without those characteristics, an HMD's performance can quickly break down into unpleasant or uncomfortable experiences for the user, where rendered content blends poorly with the user's view of the real world.

Dynamic control of performance parameters in a six degrees-of-freedom sensor calibration subsystem


Apparatuses and methods comprise receiving traffic from multiple virtual machines (VMs) associated with a same identification (ID); mapping the ID into a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address; and forwarding the traffic from the multiple VMs to a first gateway instance announcing the destination IP address.

A cloud computing architecture may be built up for multiple tenants. Each tenant is assigned its own network identification (tenant ID). Traditionally, virtual local area networks (VLANs) are used to isolate tenants in a cloud computing environment. However, VLAN specifications only allow for up to 4,096 network IDs to be assigned, which may not be sufficient for a large cloud computing environment.
Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) is an encapsulation protocol that enables the cloud computing environment while logically isolating tenants. The primary goal of VXLAN is to extend the virtual VLAN address space by adding a 24-bit segment ID and increasing the number of available IDs to 16 million. VXLAN also allows a server to instruct network switches where to send packets. Each switch has software to receive and process instructions from the server. Packet-moving decisions and network traffic flow may be programmed for individual switches.
VXLAN is also referred to as an overlay technology because it allows stretching Layer 2 connections over an intervening Layer 3 network by encapsulating (tunneling) data into a VXLAN packet. Devices that support VXLANs are called virtual tunnel endpoints (VTEPs), which encapsulate and de-encapsulate VXLAN traffic. The migration of virtual machines is enabled between servers that exist in separate Layer 2 domains by tunneling the traffic over Layer 3 networks. This functionality allows the user to dynamically allocate resources within or between data centers without being constrained by Layer 2 boundaries or being forced to create large or geographically stretched Layer 2 domains. Using routing protocols to connect Layer 2 domains also allows load-balance of the traffic to ensure that the user gets the best use of available bandwidth.
Each virtual private cloud (VPC) user has a unique VPC ID, and different users have different VPC IDs. Therefore, network traffics of different users may be isolated and secured. A user may have more than one virtual machines (VMs) hosted on different servers. A service provider needs to ensure that each VPC user does not consume resource such as bandwidth or dataflow more than purchased.
In a gateway cluster, each gateway instance announces a range of Virtual Internet protocol (VIP) addresses to the network so that a packet with a destination IP address may be forwarded to the gateway instance based on in which range of VIP addresses the destination VIP address falls. Due to network load balancing, the traffic from a single VPC is distributed among different gateway instances. When one gateway instance is down, the packet may be randomly rerouted to a different gateway instance in the gateway cluster. Therefore, how to perform the traffic limitation of the same user becomes a problem.

Method, apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium for network control


Techniques are disclosed for managing media playback among an ad hoc group of playback devices. Such techniques may involve building a session among the playback devices in which playback devices communicate information regarding their playback capabilities. Based on the playback capabilities of the devices, playback mode may be derived for the session. Playback operations may be synchronized among the devices that are members of the session, in which devices receive identification of asset(s) to be rendered pursuant to the playback operation and timing information of playback of the asset. The devices may stream the playback assets directly from media sources when they are capable of doing so. In this manner, communication resources are conserved.

The present disclosure relates to media playback operations and, in particular, to synchronization of playback devices that are grouped together for playback on an ad hoc basis.
Media playback devices are well-known in consumer applications. Typically, they involve playback of video or audio at a consumer device, such as a media player device (a television, an audio system). Recently, playback applications have expanded to include playback through networked devices, such as playback over a Bluetooth or WiFi network. In networked applications, playback typically involves streaming playback content from a first player device, such as a smartphone, to a connected rendering device. The first player device may not store the playback content itself; it may stream the content from another source.

Encapsulating and synchronizing state interactions between devices


A mobile electronic device provided with a static display that can be activated by a processor upon events in the mobile electronic device for alerting a user. A mobile electronic device provided with a flexible display that follows curved surfaces of the housing of the device and can be wrapped around corners and edges of the mobile electronic device.

1. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to mobile electronic devices that are provided with a display for providing the user with information or for alerting the user of events.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Users of electronic devices, such as mobile phones are alerted of events, such as an incoming call or a received SMS via a variety of alerting means in conventional mobile phones. These alerting means include audible signals, such as ringing tones, vibration, and lighting up of the display. Lighting up of the display is particularly useful in environments where ringing tones are considered to be disturbing and for hearing-impaired users. However, the backlighting of the LCD displays consumes relatively large amount of energy, thereby reducing battery lifetime of the mobile electric device. The battery lifetime is always an important characteristic of a mobile electronic device and therefore there is a desire to reduce the energy consumption of the mobile electronic device. Further, some types of mobile electronic devices do not include an LCD display, or the LCD display is covered in certain situations, for example in a closed clamshell type mobile telephone. Further, there is a desire for displaying information on the cover of mobile electronic devices on areas that are not conventionally occupied by a display.

Mobile electronic device with an illuminated static display


There are provided a resin composition that is suitable for the production of a flame-retardant molded article and that can provide high flame retardancy even with a small amount of flame retardant added, and a flame retardancy determination method for determining the flame retardancy of a resin composition. The resin composition of the present invention contains a thermoplastic resin, a cellulosic material, and a phosphate flame retardant and satisfies relational expressions (1) and (2) (where in expressions (1) and (2), TP, TB, and TCMP are temperatures at weight loss rate peaks in thermogravimetric analysis, TP is a temperature (° C.) at a weight loss rate peak of the thermoplastic resin, TB is a temperature (° C.) at a weight loss rate peak of the cellulosic material, and TCMP is a temperature (° C.) at a weight loss rate peak of the resin composition. When the resin composition has two weight loss rate peaks, TCMP is a temperature at a peak on a lower temperature side).

In recent years, organic materials such as plastics have been used in a wide variety of fields such as home appliances, automobiles, and building materials.
However, organic materials often suffer from flammability and combustibility. Specifically, when organic materials are used for, for example, electrical equipment or automotive parts, organic materials may cause fire or combustion spreading, depending on usage environment or the like.
It is known that flame retardants are added to plastics to improve the flame retardancy of plastics.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a resin composition containing a thermoplastic resin, a wood material powder, and a compatibilizer and an example in which a phosphate-based flame retardant is added as a flame retardant.

Resin composition and method for determining flame retardancy of resin composition


Annoying insects are controlled by attaching an insect control device to the body of the animal to be treated. The insect control device is a molded article, preferably in the form of an ear tag, which has been formed from a powder mixture of coumaphos, polyvinyl chloride and a plasticizer. The coumaphos is generally used in an amount such that from about 5 to about 30 wt % of the device is coumaphos. Other materials such as lubricants, pigments, stabilizers, etc. may also be included in minor amounts. The device may be formed by any appropriate technique but injection molding has been found to be particularly advantageous.

The present invention relates to insect control devices for livestock and to a process for protecting livestock against insects.
Livestock are frequently troubled by various types of insects such as flies and lice which transmit infection of the skin, eyes and ears as well as cause irritation leading to loss of production. Several approaches have been taken to alleviate this insect problem. One approach requires application of an insecticide spray on the animal. This approach is undesirable because it requires a substantial amount of time and labor to gather the animals to be treated and then to treat the animals. Further, application by this method is effective for only a short period of time so that frequent applications are necessary to effectively treat the livestock. A more economical and less labor intensive approach is therefore generally preferred.
One approach which is used is application of insecticide by having the animal to be treated come into contact with a device from which the selected insecticide is dispensed. Dispensers such as dust bags or oilers are placed in areas where it is anticipated that the livestock will come into contact with them. This approach does reduce the amount of labor involved in treating livestock, but it does not ensure that each animal will receive the necessary treatment at regular intervals.
Another approach employs slow release pesticide technology. In this approach, a pesticide is mixed with a resinous substance which will release the insecticide over an extended period of time. These pesticide containing resins have been used in a variety of forms ranging from collars to tags which should be attached to various body parts of the animal. The use of pesticide containing ear tags is of particular interest for treating livestock as is evident from the large number of publications and patents directed to such ear tags.
For example, U S. Pat. Nos. 4,366,777 and 4,562,794 each disclose ear tags in which a liquid insecticide dispenser is used. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,777 the insecticidal liquid which is enclosed in a fibrous or foam reservoir is wicked onto the surface of the tag to provide insecticidal activity. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,794, the dispenser or reservoir containing the insecticide is attached to an animal identification tag. Release of the insecticide is dependent upon migration or diffusion of the insecticide through a semipermeable membrane.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,327 discloses an insecticide impregnated tape which is attached to a conventional ear tag. Each of these tags has been found to be disadvantageous because the insecticide containing reservoir or tape may be detached from the tag on fences or brush. It would therefore be advantageous to have a tag in which the insecticide is directly incorporated.
Such an approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,721,064, 4,195,075 and 4,265,876 as well as in Miller et al, "Release of Pyrethroids from Insecticidal Ear Tags", J. Econ. Entomol. 76:1335-1340 (1983) and Miller et al, "Release Rates From Cattle Insecticidal Ear Tags In Various Regions Of The United States", The Southwestern Entomologist, Vol. 11 No.1, pages 45-50 (March 1986). The Miller et al disclosures and U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,075 are, however, limited to use of liquid insecticides which will evaporate at ambient temperatures. Use of such liquids may be undesirable in areas where the ambient temperature is high enough to cause rapid evaporation of the insecticide and thus result in an undesirably greater release of insecticide over a shorter period of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,064 teaches that any of the well known migratory and/or vaporizable insecticides may be incorporated in the disclosed tags. Coumaphos is not, however, a migratory or vaporizable insecticide.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,876 is limited to tags containing pyrethroid insecticides whereas coumaphos is not a pyrethroid.

Insect control device for livestock containing coumaphos


In a method for the monitoring of a monitored zone next to and/or in an apparatus having at least one driven movable part, video images are used which were detected in time sequence by at least two video cameras whose fields of view overlap at least partly in an overlap region in the monitored zone. On the basis of the first video images detected by a first one of the video cameras, a first recognition and/or tracking of virtual objects is carried out and, on the basis of the second video images detected by a second one of the video cameras, a second recognition and/or tracking of virtual objects is carried out, the virtual objects corresponding to real objects at least in the overlap region. For the classification and/or determination of the position and/or the movement of at least one real object in the overlap region, virtual objects corresponding to the real object from the first and second virtual object recognition and/or tracking processes are determined and data determined in each case for both virtual objects on their virtual object recognition and/or tracking are evaluated. At least one monitoring signal is formed in dependence on the evaluation.

Methods of monitoring a monitored zone are generally known and can be used to monitor zones close to and/or in apparatuses having at least one movable part, for example machines, which could injure the operator under unfavorable circumstances. Examples for such machines are stamping and bending machines, in which a bending stamp presses metal sheet against a bending tool and deforms it, shears, punching presses or robots.
To be able to achieve a productivity which is as high as possible by low standstill times or downtimes of such a machine, it is desirable in a method of the aforesaid type that a danger for the operator can be recognized as unequivocally as possible and can be distinguished from other processes or movements of other real objects in the region of the machine so that the machine only needs to be stopped in the event of an actual danger where possible.
Such a method should be able to be carried out in real time so that the normal working speed on such a machine is not impaired.

Method for the monitoring of a monitored zone


A sulfur recovery process including a Claus reaction wherein sulfur-containing compounds are converted to elemental sulfur in the presence of a stoichiometric excess of hydrogen sulfide. The sulfurous compounds in the tail gas of the Claus reaction are separated for recycle using crystallization. Liquid carbon dioxide absorption is used to separate substantially all sulfur-containing compounds from a residual tail gas suitable for venting to the atmosphere.

This invention relates generally to sulfur recovery processes and more particularly to an improved Claus process and to a process for cleanup of sulfur-containing constituents in a gaseous stream such as a tail gas from a sulfur recovery unit (SRU).
The recovery of sulfur and cleanup of sulfur-containing constituents or compounds in a gaseous stream may be economically and/or environmentally motivated. The Claus process is widely used for the recovery and production of elemental sulfur from acid or sour gas streams also containing hydrogen sulfide in admixture with carbon dioxide. Additional sulfur-containing compounds which may be present or otherwise encountered or formed in the process include sulfur dioxide, carbonyl sulfide and carbon disulfide. The acid gas streams usually also contain small amounts of hydrocarbons ranging from methane to butane and even higher molecular weight hydrocarbons.
In most Claus processes, an initial thermal reaction zone or reactor is used with the addition of an oxidant such as air to react hydrogen sulfide to sulfur. In addition, sulfur dioxide and water are formed. Following separation of the sulfur product, the gases from the thermal reaction zone are passed through one or more catalytic reactors or stages wherein sulfur dioxide is reacted with hydrogen sulfide over alumina or bauxite catalysts to produce additional sulfur. As the inert content of the acid gas stream increases, the thermal reaction becomes unstable and preheating or diverting of a portion of the acid gas feed around the thermal reactor is required in modified Claus processes. Thus, the conversion of contaminants to sulfur and the percent of sulfur recovery in such processes are limited by the Claus reaction thermodynamics or kinetics.
The Claus process is sensitive to variations in the feed rate of the acid gas stream and relatively minor variations in upstream units tend to amplify in the Claus plant, "Claus Processing of Novel Acid Gas Streams", Beavon, David K., Symposium on Sulfur Recovery and Utilization, presented before the division of Petroleum Chemistry, Inc., American Chemical Society, Atlanta meeting, Mar. 29-Apr. 3, 1981. In acid gas streams containing relatively high proportions of inerts, e.g. carbon dioxide, the bypass of the thermal reactor is prohibited when even traces of olefins or aromatics are present since they react to form tarry products which foul the catalyst and discolor the sulfur, Beavon, supra.
The Claus process as described above removes about 93-96% of the originally present sulfur and generally requires an accompanying tail gas cleanup process and plant process equipment to remove the unreacted sulfurous compounds, primarily sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide together with lesser amounts of carbonyl sulfide and carbon disulfide. Known tail gas cleanup techniques may increase the overall recovery to 99.5-99.6% without meeting recent emission standards in the range of 100 ppm and less. The costs of such tail gas cleanup plants often exceed the cost of the Claus plant for bulk sulfur recovery, and therefore the plants may be based on emission standards rather than economics.
Considerable effort has been expended to develop economical and effective tail gas cleanup processes. An early survey of prior processes is provided in "Current Claus Tail Gas Cleanup Processes", by B. Gene Goar, as presented at the Fifty Seventh Annual Convention of the Gas Processors Association, 1978. This survey is updated in "Emerging New Sulfur Recovery Technologies", by B. Gene Goar, Proceedings of the Gas Conditioning Conference, page 87, Mar. 6-8, 1989. Certain of these processes include conversion of the sulfur-containing compounds in the tail gas to a single species prior to absorption thereof. The advantages of conversion to a single sulfur species prior to water removal is discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,752,877 and 4,426,369. The Shell Claus Offgas Treating (SCOT) process is considered to be one of the most flexible processes available. In such process, all of the sulfurous compounds are converted to hydrogen sulfide and in a final stage selectively absorbed with an alkanolamine solution. The purified tail gas for venting contains about 200-500 ppm hydrogen sulfide which must be incinerated to sulfur dioxide before venting. This exceeds some current emission standards and may restrict use of the process. As reported by Goar, supra, the captial cost of the SCOT plant may equal the cost of the parent Claus plant in an "add-on" application and equals about 75-80% of the Claus cost in an integrated new plant.
Pending patent application U.S. Ser. No. 234,864, filed Aug. 19, 1988, which is owned by the assignee herein, discloses an improved tail gas cleanup process wherein only a single thermal or catalytic reactor or reaction stage is used in a Claus reaction. The relatively high concentrations of unreacted The relatively high concentrations of unreacted hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide resulting from the use of a single reactor stage are recovered with conversion to sulfur dioxide by incineration and concentrated by absorption and crystallization processes for recycle in such process. More particularly, a liquid carbon dioxide absorbent is used to remove contaminant sulfur-containing components which are thereafter separated for recycle. In this manner, substantially all sulfur-containing compounds are removed from the tail gas to provide sulfur dioxide for use in the Claus reaction. The sulfurous compounds in the feed stream to the Claus reactor are concentrated by crystallization or distillation prior to or following combination with the recycle stream.


In an optical disk apparatus applicable to super thin-sizing thereof, and further a sliding drive mechanism for an optical pickup, having a tilt adjustment mechanism, being suitable to such the optical disk apparatus, the sliding drive mechanism for an optical pickup slides the optical pickup 330 in the radial direction of an optical disk, wherein the optical pickup is attached to be movable on a pair of main and counter sliding shafts 331 and 332, being disposed in parallel with, and in neighboring to the main sliding shaft is disposed a lead screw 336, which is rotationally driven by a stepping motor 337, in parallel, while being engaged with a rack 335 formed in a part of the optical pickup. Also, an end of the main sliding shaft, both ends of the counter sliding shaft, and an end of the lead screw are disposed and fixed onto a chassis being formed in one body therewith, and further the other end of the main sliding shaft and the other end of the lead screw are positioned, in one body thereof, by means of a connection member 341, while the connection member is adjustable on the position thereof by means of an adjusting screw 342 to the chassis, thereby building up a tilt adjusting mechanism for the optical pickup.

The present invention relates to an optical disk apparatus, for recording or reproducing recording information through irradiating a light beam upon an information-recording medium, such as, being so-called a discoidal optical disk, and it relates to, in particular, an optical disk apparatus having a tilt adjustment mechanism for an optical pickup thereof, as well as, a sliding drive mechanism for an optical pickup having such the tilt adjustment mechanism therein.
In recent years, the optical disk apparatus, for recording or reproducing recording information through irradiating a light beam upon an information-recording medium, such as, being so-called a discoidal optical disk, accompanying with wide spreading of the information recording media, enabling recording/reproducing of a large amount of information, such as a CD-ROM and/or a DVD disk, etc., it is used widely, not only as an AV apparatus for recording/reproducing music and/or pictures, but also, as an apparatus of enabling to record/reproduce such the information media; i.e., as an exterior memory of a personal computer or the like.
On the other hand, in recent years, accompanying with small-sizing and low-pricing of such the personal computers and so on, but including the AV apparatus mentioned above therein, demand is made thereupon, strongly, also upon the optical disk apparatus, to be small in the sizes and low in the price thereof. However, in relation to the small-sizing of the optical disk apparatus, since the optical disks, being the information recording media to be used therein, such as, the CD-ROM and/or the DVD disk, etc., for example, are already determined in the sized thereof at the predetermined values, in accordance with a standard or the like thereof; therefore, it is strongly required that the apparatus itself comes to be thin in the type or size thereof, and accompanying with this, in most recent years, an optical disk apparatus appears on the market, which is so-called a super-thin type, being equal or less than 10 mm in the thickness size thereof.
By the way, for an optical pickup provided within such the optical disk apparatus, so as to satisfy such the strong demand made for thin-sizing mentioned above, it is necessary to be movable, freely and swiftly, in the radial direction of the optical disk inserted within the apparatus, but also within a very narrow space defined therein, and further, it is also necessary to conduct a focusing operation; i.e., focusing a laser beam irradiated upon the information recording surface of the disk.
Conventionally, in the structure for mounting the optical pickup on such the optical disk apparatus mentioned above, as is already known in the following Patent Document 1, for example, the optical pickup is hooked on a pair of rod-like shafts (i.e., a sliding main-shaft and a counter-shaft) at both ends thereof, and it is further attached with a lead screw provided in parallel with the sliding shaft, engaging on a portion thereof; thereby achieving the movement through rotating the lead screw by means of a disk motor, i.e., being made of a stepping motor or the like, for example.
And, in such the structure, conventionally, the adjustment mechanism for the tilt, i.e., an inclination angle of the optical pickup, is achieved by making adjustment only upon the inclination of the sliding main-shaft and the counter-shaft of the optical pickup. However, as a result of bringing the optical characteristics of the optical pickup to be optimal through the adjustment of that sliding main-shaft, there is caused an anxiety that a relative distance and/or an angle defined between the lead screw and the sliding main-shaft comes out from being constant, within an inside of the disk (i.e., a side near to the disk motor) and an outside thereof (i.e., a side far from the disk motor). In such the case, the lead screw may come out from the engagement with a rack therebetween; thus, there may be caused so-called jump-out from the screw. Further, since the strict restriction is made also upon the lead screw, in particular, in the depth of grooves (or, the teeth height of a screw), accompanying with the thin-sizing of the optical disk apparatus, then this also comes up to be a remarkable problem, in particular, in the optical disk apparatus, in particular, of such the super thin-type mentioned above.
However, with such the structure already known in that Patent Document 1, due to the tilt adjustment conducted when manufacturing the optical disk apparatus, the counter-shaft is attached on a substrate portion (i.e., a main chassis) through an adjustment mechanism portion thereof, while disposing a supporting portion of the sliding main-shaft and the stepping motor, on which the lead screw is attached, on a sub-substrate, thereby achieving a tilt adjustment through conducting an adjustment on that sub-substrate, in relation to the substrate portion (i.e., the main chassis).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. Hei 11-39661 (1999).

Optical disk apparatus and a sliding drive mechanism for an optical pickup thereof