In one embodiment of the invention, a MEMS structure includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a mobile element. The first electrode is coupled to a first voltage source. The second electrode is coupled to a second voltage source. The mobile element includes a third electrode coupled to a third voltage source. A steady voltage difference between the first electrode and the third electrode is used to tune the natural frequency of the structure to a scanning frequency of an application. An oscillating voltage difference between the second electrode and the third electrode at the scanning frequency of the application is used to oscillate the mobile element. In one embodiment, the mobile unit is a mirror.

This invention relates to micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and more particularly to MEMS scanning mirrors.
Various electrostatic designs for MEMS scanning mirrors have been proposed. Their applications include barcode readers, laser printers, confocal microscopes, fiber-optical network components, projection displays for projectors, rear projection TVs, wearable displays, and military laser tracking and guidance systems. Typically a MEMS scanning mirror is driven at its. main resonance to achieve a high scan angle. Invariably the manufacturing processes produce MEMS scanning mirrors with dimensional inconsistencies that vary the natural frequencies of the individual devices. If the main natural frequency of a minority of the MEMS scanning mirrors is too low or too high, the minority devices will not produce the proper scan speed and the proper scan angle under an alternating current (AC) drive voltage selected for a majority of the MEMS scanning mirrors. Thus, an apparatus and a method are needed to tune the main natural frequency of the MEMS scanning mirrors to improve the manufacturing yield of these devices.
In one embodiment of the invention, a MEMS structure includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a mobile element. The first electrode is coupled to a first voltage source. The second electrode is coupled to a second voltage source. The mobile element includes a third electrode coupled to a third voltage source (e.g., an electrical ground). A steady voltage difference between the first electrode and the third electrode is used to tune the natural frequency of the structure to a scanning frequency of an application. An oscillating voltage difference between the second electrode and the third electrode at the scanning frequency of the application is used to oscillate the mobile element. In one embodiment, the mobile element is a mirror.

Bidirectional MEMS scanning mirror with tunable natural frequency


A system and method for providing services to multiple tenants. A system provides a gateway that acts as an intermediary between the tenants and multiple subsystems that provide resources. A management gateway handles requests to manage resources. A runtime gateway handles requests to perform operations related to the resources. A set of protocol handlers isolates the subsystems from protocols used by the tenants. A pipeline of components provides processing, such as authorization, of requests from tenants. Identification of resources is performed using a mechanism that enables multiple namespaces, which may be designated by tenants.

Computing systems are moving toward an architecture known as cloud computing. In cloud computing, servers that are remotely located provide resources in response to requests from clients or other servers. Resources may include data storage, processor usage, communications subsystems, queuing services, or various other computing services. Generally, in cloud computing, the physical location of servers is isolated from requesters.
Numerous protocols may be used when communicating across a network. A client device may communicate with multiple services, and may employ multiple communication protocols, each protocol corresponding to a service with which the client communicates. Conversely, a service may employ multiple protocols in order to accommodate clients communicating with different protocols. In some environments, changing services may involve changing a protocol that a client employs.


Process for the conversion of non-oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene, under non-oxidative conditions, comprising: providing a first stream containing at least 50 vol. % of methane based on the total volume of said first stream; providing a catalyst; putting in contact said first stream with said catalyst at a weight hour space velocity ranging from 0.5 to 100 h−1, a temperature ranging from 500° C. to 1100° C. and a pressure ranging from 0.1 MPa to 5 Mpa in the absence of oxygen; recovering a second stream containing unconverted methane if any, ethylene and hydrocarbons having at least 2 carbon atoms. Said process is remarkable in that said catalyst is a synthetic zeolite material, containing at least one metal M with silicon to metal M molar ratio Si/M as determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry ranging from 100 to 65440 and in that said metal M is incorporated inside of the zeolite tetrahedral sites.

Large quantities of methane are available worldwide but they are difficult and costly to transport. Additionally, methane has a market value of fuel whereas other components such as ethylene have a higher value. Many attempts were made to convert methane into more valuable products or into products that are easier to transport.
Transformation of methane has been abundantly studied in the literature. In particular, the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) was widely studied. However, the OCM process has several disadvantages. The selectivity of this reaction is relatively low due to the formation of CO and CO2. Therefore, a reasonable selectivity to C2+ hydrocarbons could be reached only at low methane conversion. In the C2 fraction, a significant amount of ethane is produced in addition to ethylene, which makes separation process very costly. In addition to this, the OCM is also a highly exothermic reaction, which requires a high-temperature activation implying that it is necessary to have a catalyst with high thermal stability and means for heat management.
Consequently, other routes were studied to convert methane into ethylene. In particular, non-oxidative routes were considered by the various authors.
Xiaoguang Guo et al. (Science, 2014, 344, 616-619) describe the direct, non-oxidative conversion of CH4 into H2-ethylene and aromatics at high temperature (1363 K) with the help of a catalyst being lattice-confined single iron sites embedded within a silica matrix. The disadvantages of the process are the requirement of very high temperature and co-production of naphthalene and benzene.
US 2016/0362351 describes a method for producing C2+ hydrocarbons and H2 comprising (a) introducing to a reactor a reactant mixture comprising methane, (b) heating the reactant mixture to a preheating temperature to yield a heated mixture, (c) generating free radicals in the heated mixture to form a primary effluent mixture comprising free radicals, C2+ hydrocarbons, H2, and unreacted methane, (d) reacting the primary effluent mixture in a secondary reaction zone to form a secondary effluent mixture comprising C2+ hydrocarbons, H2, free radicals, and unreacted methane, at a secondary reaction zone temperature that is greater than the preheating temperature, wherein a free radicals amount in the primary effluent mixture is greater than a free radicals amount in the secondary effluent mixture, (e) cooling the secondary effluent mixture to a quench temperature lower than the secondary reaction zone temperature to yield a product mixture comprising C2+ hydrocarbons and H2, and (f) recovering the product mixture.
WO2014/183337 describes the preparation of a metal lattice-doping catalyst in an amorphous molten state. The process of converting methane into olefins, aromatics, and hydrogen using the catalyst under oxygen-free, continuous flowing conditions is also described. Under the conditions encountered in a fixed bed reactor (i.e. reaction temperature: 750-1200° C.; reaction pressure: atmospheric pressure; the weight hourly space velocity of feed gas: 1000-30000 ml/g/h; and fixed bed), the conversion of methane is 8-50%. The selectivity of olefins is 30-90%. And the selectivity of aromatics is 10-70%.
WO2017/062663 describes non-oxidative direct methane conversion (NDMC) to value-added products, such as H2, C2 hydrocarbons, and aromatics, within a particular design. The reactor has a first volume, where a feed gas including methane is provided, separated from a second volume, where a sweep gas is provided, by a dense thin film membrane supported on a porous wall. The thin-film membrane is a mixed ionic-electronic permeable membrane that allows H2 generated in the first volume to be transported to the second volume for removal by (or reaction with) the sweep gas. A catalyst can be provided in or adjacent to the first volume. The typical catalyst is metal-doped quartz material (e.g., Fe/SiO2) or a metal/zeolite material (e.g., Mo/ZSM5).
WO2015/018807 describes a process for the oxygen-free conversion of methane to ethylene on zeolite catalysts and catalysts comprising a zeolite belonging to the groups AHT, -CHI, CZP, HEU, JRY, JST, LAU, LOV, NAB, MVY, RSN, STT, VSV, WEI, preferred RRO, a metal selected from the group consisting of Mo, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ag, Mg, W, Re, Ga, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt and mixtures thereof, preferably Mo.
The non-oxidative conversion of methane into ethylene is not fully optimized. The latter does hold high potential as a method to decarbonize natural gas to chemical products and hydrogen. There is still a need to find more active and selective catalysts. In particular, there is still a need to find selective catalyst allowing mainly to form C2 hydrocarbon fraction containing mainly ethylene. There is also still a need to have a catalyst stable with time. Zeolites are well-known crystalline catalysts that are widely used as a catalyst and offer high potential for this reaction.
Zeolites are structurally complex inorganic polymers with a three-dimensional crystalline skeleton of TO4 tetrahedral. The centre of the tetrahedral is generally a silicon or aluminium atom, which corresponds to a SiO4 and AlO4 tetrahedron respectively. These tetrahedrals are connected by common oxygen atoms. The complete structure forms a three-dimensional network, exhibiting some micropores, cages and channels. They have a demonstrated track record in many applications such as catalysis, separation and ion exchange due to their unique properties of acidic molecular sieves. In the past decades, many efforts have been devoted to tuning zeolite properties such as acidity and redox potential to improve their performances. Such modification of zeolite acidity and redox properties is usually performed through the introduction of transition metal atoms. The resulting properties of the material will then highly depend on the nature of the metal species introduced in the zeolite, depending on itself on the way the metal was introduced in the first place.
Two main groups of metal species exist in zeolites: (i) non-framework metal species and (ii) framework metal species. Non-framework metal species are sitting in non-framework positions of the zeolite structure. On the other hand, framework metal stands for metal introduced in crystallographic tetrahedral positions from the zeolite framework thanks to a procedure called isomorphous substitution. Isomorphous substitution is a procedure allowing to replace one silicon atom from the zeolite framework with any other given elements.
Isomorphous substitution can be performed using two main approaches: (i) direct hydrothermal synthesis or (ii) post-synthesis approach. The direct synthesis approach (i) corresponds to the direct introduction of metal source within the precursor suspension (gel) before crystallization. The presence of metallic species in the precursors then allows replacing part of silica by other metals during the crystallization process, thus, achieving isomorphous substitution. However, the presence of metallic species in the precursor suspension (gel) is not to be considered lightly, as it can influence strongly the nucleation and crystallization process as described for the synthesis of Sn-BEA zeolite by S. Tolborg et al. (J. Mat. Chem. A., 2014, 2, 20252-20262). Similarly, a lot of silanols can still be observed in Sn-BEA zeolite after Sn introduction in the work from van der Graaff N. P. W., et al. (Chem. Cat. Chem., 2015, 7, 1152-1160).
N. Garcia Vargas et al. (Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2012, 152, 37-49) reported the preparation of tin (IV) MFI where the presence of sodium hydroxide makes it difficult to have a pure Sn-MFI material.
Yong Sig Ko et al. (Korean J. Chem. Eng., 1998, 15(4), 423-428) reported the preparation of zirconium silicalite-1 (ZS-1) prepared via hydrothermal synthesis method where the zirconium precursor is incorporated directly into the zeolite precursor gel.
Similarly, WO2017/068387 reported a method for the preparation of nanosized synthetic zeolite wherein the metal is incorporated in a clear solution containing the other components of the zeolite i.e. before any crystallisation of the zeolite.
In WO97/33830 described the direct hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite Ti-Beta in absence of aluminium, using hydrofluoric acid (HF) in the absence of seeds, by hydrolyzing a mixture of tetraethyl orthosilicate, tetraethylammonium hydroxide, water, hydrogen peroxide; adding tetraethyl orthotitanate to the resulting suspension, and pursuing hydrolysis; evaporating off the ethanol; adding HF to the resulting mixture, and heating in an autoclave at 140° C. for 11 days. Such preparation of zeolite in the presence of fluoride anions leads to the formation of large crystals; the high toxicity of HF and the difficulties it brings when scaled-up have to be taken into consideration.
In CN 107 537 555, the methane anaerobic dehydrogenation aromatization reaction has been described in the presence of zeolite material with molybdenum as a catalyst for forming benzene and ethylene. The catalyst, Mo/HZSM-5, is prepared by contacting a first solution comprising the silicon precursor and the metal precursor with a second solution comprising the tetraalkylammonium hydroxide. This catalyst favours the formation of benzene.
In CN 106 914 243, the methane anaerobic production of ethylene in the presence of a molten amorphous material containing metal is described. The dispersion of the metal into the amorphous material is performed thanks to solid-phase doping techniques, such as improved chemical vapour deposition, sol-gel combined improved chemical vapour deposition or porous silicon compound infiltration combined with improved chemical vapour deposition. Besides ethylene, other compounds such as aromatic hydrocarbons and naphthalene are generated.
Many efforts were devoted to the reduction of crystal size to reduce diffusion limitations for catalysis applications with sometimes limited success. However, a catalyst with reduced crystal size is of particular interest for catalysis and reactions of conversion of methane into ethylene.

Non-oxidative conversion of methane into ethylene using isomorphous metal-substituted zeolite framework catalyst

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (CNRS)


According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a stacked body including a plurality of electrode layers and a plurality of first insulating layers; a first channel body layer penetrating the stacked body; a memory film; an interlayer insulating film provided on the stacked body; a selection gate electrode provided on the interlayer insulating film; a second channel body layer penetrating the selection gate electrode and the interlayer insulating film and connected to the first channel body; a gate insulating film provided between the selection gate electrode and the second channel body layer; a second insulating layer provided on the gate insulating film and on the selection gate electrode; a contact layer provided on the second insulating layer; and a diffusion layer provided between the contact layer and the second insulating layer and connected to the second channel body layer and the contact layer.

As a method of increasing the capacity of and reducing the cost of a semiconductor memory device, there is a batch processing type stacked memory. The batch processing type stacked memory is manufactured as follows: a stacked body is formed by alternately stacking an insulating film and an electrode film on a semiconductor substrate, thereafter a through hole is formed in the stacked body by lithography, a block layer, a charge storage layer and a tunnel layer are deposited within the through hole in this order and a silicon pillar is embedded into the through hole.
In the stacked memory as described above, a memory transistor is formed at the intersection portion of the electrode film and the silicon pillar, and this serves as a memory cell. A selection gate electrode is provided on the stacked body, the silicon pillar is made to penetrate the selection gate electrode, the upper end of the silicon pillar is connected to a wiring in an upper layer and thus a selection transistor is formed between the selection gate electrode and the silicon pillar. Then, the selection transistor is controlled, and thus it is possible to switch whether or not the silicon pillar is connected to the wiring in the upper layer.

Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing same


Processing apparatus for poultry that may include one or more transfer units placed intermediate and conveying poultry from a first line to a subsequent second line. The transfer means may include at least one magnet for inducing eddy currents in a circulating support that counteracts relative motion between the transfer means and the circulating support. The at least one magnet may be embodied with a series of alternating north-poles (+) and south-poles (−) facing the circulating support.

Such a processing apparatus is known from EP-B-0 736 255 and from EP-B-0 782 823, both in the name of the applicant.
EP-B-1 848 282 discloses another, more complex type of processing apparatus intended for the same functionality as the processing apparatus according to the preamble, in which a drive is applied for jointly driving a plurality of transfer means, and coupling means associated with each transfer means for coupling to the drive.
The transfer units forming part of the processing apparatus according to the preamble are operative in a relatively polluted environment, due to the grease and blood escaping from the poultry that is being processed. This grease and blood may even mingle with water that is applied in or around the processing apparatus, and the grease and blood may partly solidify. All in all the conditions prevailing in the processing apparatus of the preamble are unpredictable and result at times in poor reliability in the transfer of the poultry from a first line to a subsequent second line selected from the group comprising a slaughtering line, an evisceration line, a chilling line, a sorting line and a cutup line. This will even get worse and possibly unacceptable with increasing speed of processing. Current processing speeds are at a level of handling 8000 chickens per hour, but industry is aiming to processing speeds of at least 12,000 chickens per hour and possibly 15,000 chickens per hour. Certainly at these increased processing speeds, the prior art processing apparatus is unsuitable.
According to the invention, this problem is addressed to a great extent if not entirely by the processing line and the transfer means in accordance with one or more of the appended claims.
It is remarked that EP-B-2 687 101 teaches a processing line wherein the circulating support comprises material that is magnetically conductive and that the transfer means are provided with at least one magnet so as to induce eddy currents in the circulating support to counteract relative motion between the transfer means and the circulating support. Obviously the circulating support of EP-B-2 687 101 comprises therefore material that is susceptible to eddy currents. This requires material that supports electrical current and is sensitive to magnetic field variations for the inducement of the eddy currents.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Processing apparatus for poultry comprising one or more transfer units


A mobile memory card adapter includes a housing having an insertion hole, a circuit board that is accommodated in the housing and has a fixed connection interface extending out of one end of the housing and a movable adapter interface connected thereto with a cable and extendable to the outside of the housing at a distance, and multiple conducting terminal sets each having an insulative block detachably fastened to the circuit board and multiple metal conducting terminals kept in contact with respective conducting contacts of the circuit board and suspending in the insertion hole of the housing for the contact of a corresponding memory card that is selected by the user and inserted into the insertion hole to let the inserted memory card be electrically connected to an external electronic device through the fixed connection interface or the movable adapter interface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile memory card adapter adapted for connecting a memory card to an electronic device and more particularly, to such a mobile memory card adapter, which fits different types of memory cards and has a fixed connection interface and a movable adapter interface for connecting the inserted memory card to an electronic device selectively.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of high technology, a variety of high-tech electronic devices have been developed and have appeared on the market. These electronic devices such as computers, mobile telephones, PDAs, digital cameras and etc. provide sophisticated functions to satisfy different demands. Further, these electronic devices commonly have a card connector for receiving a memory card for storing document data or static/motion video data. Following the market trend toward light, thin, short and small electronic device characteristics, many small size memory cards have been developed.
Further, a memory card must be installed in a computer compatible card reader so that a computer is accessible to the memory card. It is inconvenient to carry a memory card with a card reader. To eliminate this problem, many mobile sticks and the likes that combine a memory device and a card reader into one compact unit are created. Further, mobile memory card adapters have also been developed and adapted for connecting different types of memory cards to a computer or electronic device. Regular memory cards include big size types of CF (Compact Flash Card) and SM (Smart Media Card) and small size types of MMC (MultiMedia Card), MS (Memory Stick), SD (Secured Digital Memory Card) and etc. By means of connecting a mobile memory card adapter to a computer or an electronic device, a user can expand the data storage space of the computer or the electronic device.
Further, the metal conducting terminals of a memory card adapter are directly bonded to the metal contacts of the circuit board of the memory card adapter by means of spot soldering or reflow soldering. This metal conducting terminal installation procedure wastes much time and labor, and may encounter the problem of missing solder or flooding of solder. Further, when wishing to detach the metal conducting terminals from the circuit board, a desoldering procedure is necessary. However, this desoldering procedure requires much time and labor and causes environmental pollution.
Further, a mobile memory stick or memory card adapter generally has only one connection interface for connection to a specific connection port or interface of a computer or electronic device. For connecting a mobile memory stick or memory card adapter to a different type of connection port, an adapter must be used.


A three-dimensional graphics system is provided. The three-dimensional graphics system rasterizes each of a plurality of polygons generated from vertexes in an order adapted to characteristics of each polygon. The three-dimensional graphics system includes a rasterization engine including a polygon setup unit receiving the vertexes and generating the polygons and rasterization information for each polygon, and a rasterizer rasterizing pixels using the rasterization information received from the polygon setup unit in an order adapted to the characteristics of each polygon. Accordingly, the coherence of the pixels is increased and the hit ratio of cache memory is thus increased. As a result, the performance of the three-dimensional graphics system is improved. With the increase of the hit ratio of the cache memory, buss traffic in the system is reduced and power consumption is thus reduced.

Three-dimensional (3D) graphics are graphics that show objects in three dimensions, instead of two dimensions, and are used in movies using special effects, geological analysis, and architecture or car designing using computer aided design (CAD). Recently, 3D graphics are being used to construct game screens.
To produce 3D graphics, 3D graphics systems break an object represented by lots of dots into polygons, e.g., triangles, comprising a plurality of pixels, perform interpolation on pixels included in each polygon through rasterization, and perform rendering (or presentation) of the 3D graphic. Conventional 3D graphics systems perform the rasterization in an order determined by considering pixel coherence within a triangle. For instance, conventional 3D graphics systems rasterize pixels forming a polygon in a span order. In other words, when a 3D graphics system generates pixels forming a triangle in a downward order, it performs rasterization of the triangle in the same order, i.e., in downward order.
The conventional 3D graphics systems consider only pixel coherence within a polygon when performing polygon rasterization. In other words, pixel coherence between polygons is not considered during the rasterization of the polygons. Consequently, when the 3D graphics systems move over to another polygon, the hit ratio of cache memory decreases and the performance of the 3D graphics systems deteriorates.

Rasterization engine and three-dimensional graphics system for rasterizing in order adapted to characteristics of polygon


A pharmaceutical composition for treating Lyme disease contains an antibody as an active agent which is specific for the 24 kDa antigen (OspC) of B. burgdorferi, preferably an antibody which is specific for the 24 kDa antigen (OspC) of B. burgdorferi having the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO.2.

The invention concerns a pharmaceutical composition for treating Lyme disease and a vaccine against Lyme disease and it also concerns a process for obtaining an active agent for treating Lyme disease and a process for obtaining a vaccine against Lyme disease.
Lyme borreliosis is an infectious disease transmitted by ticks and is caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. The disease is a chronic, progressive infection which attacks many organs, such as the skin, the central and peripheral nervous system, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the musculoskeletal system and joints. Various symptoms such as acute arthritis and neuroborreliosis can disappear spontaneously but usually reoccur episodically. Spirochetes have been repeatedly isolated from untreated patients and there are numerous indications for persistent infections even after treatment with antibiotics. Since a dependable treatment of this disease by therapy with antibiotics is difficult, great efforts are being made to investigate the pathogen itself and the immune response of the host to infection with B. burgdorferi. Although a high titre of antibodies against B. burgdorferi is usually found during infection in persons afflicted by Lyme disease, this does not protect against the infection.
It was found that the outer surface lipoprotein A (OspA) of B. burgdorferi could be an effective vaccine for the prevention of Lyme disease (EP 0 418 827). Laboratory investigations on mice have shown that a substantial protection against the disease and infection can be obtained by OspA-specific antibodies (Schaible et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87 (1990), 3768-3772).
However, these antibodies are only effective if they are present when the pathogen is transmitted. A reason for this may be that OspA is mainly expressed on spirochetes in ticks but is no longer expressed after transmission to a mammalian host. Consequently it is indeed possible to use OspA-specific antibodies to prevent transmission of the disease but they are ineffective and thus unsuitable for therapeutic applications to treat the manifest disease. Recent investigations have shown that mice can be protected against a tick-transmitted infection after active immunization with recombinant OspC (Preac-Mursic et al., Infection 20 (1992), 342-349; R. D. Gilmore et al., Infect. Immun. 64 (1996), 2234-2239). However, the immunization protocol used in these investigations does not lead to an elimination of infectious spirochetes from the vector as was shown for the OspA-specific antibodies.
Hence the object of the invention was to provide a pharmaceutical preparation for treating Lyme disease.
This object is achieved according to the invention by a pharmaceutical composition for treating Lyme disease which is characterized in that it comprises an antibody as an active agent which is specific for the 24 kDa antigen (OspC) of B. burgdorferi. It was surprisingly found that high titres of OspC-specific antibodies resulted in a spontaneous disappearance of the disease and/or elimination of spirochetes in various species of mice. The pharmaceutical composition for treating Lyme disease preferably contains an antibody as the active agent which is specific for the 24 kDa antigen (OspC) of B. burgdorferi having the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO.2.
It surprisingly turned out that the passive transfer of polyclonal OspC-reactive immune serum into B. burgdorferi-infected scid mice leads to a complete disappearance of chronic arthritis and carditis and to elimination of the pathogen. A critical threshold of OspC-specific antibodies which is between 3 and 10 xcexcg anti-OspC antibody appears to be important to effectively treat an infection. This means that spirochetes express OspC in the mammalian host and are sensitive to protective antibodies in the affected tissue during infection. Thus an attack on OspC is relevant for a successful therapeutic treatment of Lyme disease.
Earlier investigations have shown that immune sera from B. burgdorferi-infected mice only ensure a complete protection against disease and infection when they have been administered before but not after inoculation with the pathogen. In the present invention it is shown that antibodies against OspC can lead to a spontaneous disappearance of the infection and inactivation of the spirochetes in the vertebrate. Furthermore it was found that it is possible to eliminate arthritis and carditis with polyclonal OspC-specific immune sera and to heal existing spirochete infections in C.B.-17 scid mice irrespective of whether the antibodies were administered before the disease occurred (e.g. 10 days before infection) or alternatively at a time when the disease had completely broken out (on day 19 after infection) or whether it was a chronic disease (day 60 after infection). The complete disappearance of the disease and elimination of the pathogen were dose-dependent and were achieved with 1 xcexcg to 10 mg anti OspC antibody/mouse, preferably 5 xcexcg to 20 xcexcg anti OspC antibody/mouse.
Inflammatory lesions of the joints or in the heart of B. burgdorferi-inoculated scid mice were completely eliminated by polyclonal immune sera against OspC even when they were administered at a time when a chronic disease was present i.e. on the 60th day p.i.

Medicament for treating a manifested lyme disease

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Fxc3x6rderung der Wissenschaften E.V.


The present invention provides a conductive material dispersed liquid, including: a conductive material which includes bundle-type carbon nanotubes; a dispersant; a dispersion medium, where a phase angle is in a range of 3° to 18° when measured by a rheometer at a frequency of 1 Hz; and a lithium secondary battery manufactured using the conductive material dispersed liquid. The conductive material dispersed liquid has high solid-like properties, and thus allows the formation of an electrode active material layer having a uniform thickness with no concern for collapse or occurrence of cracks during manufacture of an electrode, and thereby can improve the performance characteristics, particularly capacity characteristics, of a battery.

As technological development and demand for mobile devices increase, demand for secondary batteries as energy sources is rapidly increasing. Among these secondary batteries, lithium secondary batteries having a high energy density and voltage, a long cycle life, and a low self-discharge rate are commercially available and widely used. Further, to make an electrode for such a high-capacity lithium secondary battery, research on methods for producing an electrode having a higher energy density per unit volume by improving electrode density has been actively conducted.
Generally, since a high-density electrode is formed by molding electrode active material particles having a size of several μm to several tens of μm using a high-pressure press, particles are deformed, the space between the particles is reduced, and electrolyte permeability may be lowered.
In order to solve such a problem, a conductive material having excellent electrical conductivity and strength is used in the production of electrodes. When a conductive material is used in the production of electrodes, the conductive material is dispersed among the compressed electrode active material, and thereby fine pores are maintained between the active material particles to facilitate the penetration of the electrolyte, and the resistance in the electrode can be lowered due to excellent conductivity. Among such conductive materials, the use of carbon nanotubes, which are fibrous carbon-based conductive materials, capable of further reducing electrode resistance by forming an electrically conductive path in the electrode has been increasing.
The carbon nanotube, which is a type of fine carbon fiber, is tubular carbon having a diameter of 1 μm or less, and is expected to be applied and practically used in various fields due to high conductivity, tensile strength, and heat resistance attributable to the specific structure thereof. However, despite the availability of such carbon nanotubes, the use of carbon nanotubes is limited due to low solubility and dispersibility thereof. Accordingly, in the preparation of electrodes using carbon nanotubes, carbon nanotubes are linearly dispersed in a dispersion medium, and then a composition for forming an electrode is prepared and used. However, carbon nanotubes do not stably disperse in the dispersion medium, and an aggregation phenomenon occurs due to the strong van der Waals attraction between the carbon nanotubes.
Various attempts have been made to address these issues. Specifically, a method of dispersing carbon nanotubes in a dispersion medium through mechanical dispersion treatment such as ultrasonic treatment has been proposed. However, in this method, dispersibility is excellent while the ultrasonic wave is irradiated, but the carbon nanotubes start to aggregate when the ultrasonic irradiation is finished. Further, a method of dispersing and stabilizing carbon nanotubes using various dispersants has been proposed. However, this method also has a problem in that, when carbon nanotubes are dispersed at a high concentration in a dispersion medium, handling becomes difficult due to an increase in viscosity.
Accordingly, there is a need for development of a method capable of improving the dispersibility of carbon nanotubes in an electrode without reducing conductivity, and a method of preparing a carbon nanotube dispersed liquid which is useful in the production of electrodes using the above-described method.

Conductive material dispersed liquid and lithium secondary battery manufactured using same


A container for transporting and storing goods with a container base and at least two side walls that can be folded over one another, the two side walls are respectively pivotably supported through at least one hinge bolt in a hinge bolt receiver, wherein the hinge bolt receiver comprises an elongated recess extending perpendicular to the container base. The folded down side wall is movable from a lower end position, in which the folded down side wall contacts the container base, into an upper end position, which is displaced upward from the lower end position in a direction perpendicular to the container base. Hinge bolt is provided with a guided translatoric movement when the side wall is folded up from the lower end position, causing rotation of the hinge bolt in the hinge bolt receiver, so that the side wall moves upward in a direction perpendicular to the container base.

The invention relates to a container for transporting and storing goods, the container including a container base and at least two side walls that can be folded on top of one another according to the preamble of patent claim 1.
Foldable containers are well known in the art. Folding containers of this type typically include a container base with a rectangular plan view, wherein the foldable side walls are linked at the edges of the base through hinges, wherein the hinges are linked through hinge bolts in hinge receivers, this means the hinges are rotatably supported.
In a folded up position of the side walls, the side walls are connected to one another through a snap lock connection, which can also be disengaged again in order to fold up the containers e.g. for empty transportation, which, however, is not mandatory.
For many folding containers the side walls are configured higher than half the width of the container base, so that the side walls overlap when two side walls disposed opposite to one another are folded towards one another. A container is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,717 B1 in which the folded over side wall can be brought into two end positions, thus a lower end position in which the folded over side wall contacts the container base flush, and an upper end position in which the side wall contacts the opposite folded over side wall in a location which is offset in upward direction relative to the upper end position in a direction perpendicular from the container base in a parallel manner. The side wall can be erected from the upper end position. U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,717 B1 provides a hinge bolt receiver for this purpose which extends upward from the container base and is shaped as an arcuate slotted hole, wherein the hinge bolt is freely moveable in the hinge bolt receiver in the slotted hole when the sidewall is folded down.
It is disadvantageous for those foldable containers that the folded down side wall initially has to be lifted from its lower end position into its upper end position, in which the rotation for erecting the side wall can then be performed. When it is accidentally attempted to erect the side wall starting from its lower end position, a jamming of the hinge bolt can occur in the hinge bolt receiver, which can lead to damaging the container.

Container with side walls foldable on top of one another


A portable feed apparatus comprising a feed container, a mixing assembly that receives a feed from said feed container, at least one feed additive assembly in flowable connection with said mixing assembly, and a controller in communication with said mixing assembly.

FIG. 1A illustrates a prior art apparatus to feed livestock. Vehicle 100 comprises cab portion 102 and trailer portion 105. In certain embodiments, cab 102 and trailer 105 comprise an integral manufacture.
Trailer portion 105 comprises feed container 110 and delivery assembly 120 disposed therein. Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B, feed 150 is disposed in feed container 110 and is gravity feed into delivery assembly 120. In the illustrated embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1B, delivery assembly 120 comprises a first auger 130 and a second auger 140. In other embodiments, delivery assembly 120 may comprise a single auger. In still other embodiments, delivery assembly 120 comprises a more than 2 augers. In certain embodiments, multiple augers may operate in a counter-rotating fashion.
Referring now to FIG. 1C, vehicle 100 is driven to a livestock feeding site and positioned such that feed trailer 105 is disposed adjacent feed bunk 170. Side 190 of feed trailer 105 is formed to include aperture 180. Delivery assembly 120 is energized, and feed 150 is transferred from feed container 110, through aperture 180, across chute 160 and into feed bunk 170.
The prior art apparatus of FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C, can deliver the same feed formulation to a plurality of feeding locations. However, different formulations cannot be delivered to different locations.


A system and method for computing the location of a mobile terminal in a wireless communications network, such as an ad-hoc wireless communications network. In particular, the system and method estimates the location of a mobile terminal in a wireless communications network, such as an ad-hoc terrestrial wireless communications network, based on estimated distances to a plurality of terrestrial reference terminals using error minimizing techniques, such as those based on Gauss""s postulate. In doing so, the system and method estimate a respective distance from the mobile terminal to each of the reference terminals based on the respective signals received at the mobile terminal from the reference terminals, calculate a respective simulated pattern, such as a sphere or circle, about each of the respective reference terminals based on the respective distance from the terminal to each respective reference terminal and the respective locations of the respective reference terminals, estimates a location at which each of the simulated patterns intersect each other, and identifies the estimated location as representing the location of the terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for computing the location of a mobile terminal in a wireless communications network, such as an ad-hoc wireless communications network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for computing the location of a mobile terminal in a wireless communications network, such as an ad-hoc terrestrial wireless communications network, based on estimated distances to a plurality of terrestrial reference terminals using error minimizing techniques, such as Gauss""s postulate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communications networks, such as mobile wireless telephone networks, have become increasingly prevalent over the past decade. These wireless communications networks are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9ccellular networksxe2x80x9d, because the network infrastructure is arranged to divide the service area into a plurality of regions called xe2x80x9ccellsxe2x80x9d.
Specifically, a terrestrial cellular network includes a plurality of interconnected base stations that are distributed geographically at designated locations throughout the service area. Each base station includes one or more transceivers that are capable of transmitting and receiving electromagnetic signals, such as radio frequency (RF) communications signals, to and from user terminals, such as wireless telephones, located in its coverage area. The communications signals include, for example, voice data that has been modulated according to a desired modulation technique and transmitted as data packets. As can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the transceiver and user terminals transmit and receive the data packets in multiplexed format, such as time-division multiple access (TDMA) format, code-division multiple access (CDMA) format, or frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) format, which enables a single transceiver at the base station to communicate simultaneously with several user terminals in its coverage area.
In recent years, a type of mobile communications network known as an xe2x80x9cad-hocxe2x80x9d network has been developed for use by the military. In this type of network, each user terminal is capable of operating as a base station or router for the other user terminals, thus eliminating the need for a fixed infrastructure of base stations. Details of an ad-hoc network are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,322 to Mayor, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
More sophisticated ad-hoc networks are also being developed which, in addition to enabling user terminals to communicate with each other as in a conventional ad-hoc network, further enable the user terminals to access a fixed network and thus communicate with other user terminals, such as those on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and on other networks such as the Internet. Details of these types of ad-hoc networks are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/897,790 entitled xe2x80x9cAd Hoc Peer-to-Peer Mobile Radio Access System Interfaced to the PSTN and Cellular Networksxe2x80x9d, filed on Jun. 29, 2001, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/815,157 entitled xe2x80x9cTime Division Protocol for an Ad-Hoc, Peer-to-Peer Radio Network Having Coordinating Channel Access to Shared Parallel Data Channels with Separate Reservation Channelxe2x80x9d, filed on Mar. 22, 2001, the entire content of both of said patent applications being incorporated herein by reference.
In either conventional wireless communications networks, or in ad-hoc wireless communications networks, it may be necessary or desirable for a user terminal to be capable of knowing or determining its geographic location. Different types of location determining services and techniques for wireless communications networks are described in a publication by Nokia which can be found on the Nokia website at xe2x80x9cwww.nokia.com/press/background/pdf/mlbs.pdfxe2x80x9d, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference. In particular, the Nokia document states that location identification services are currently provided in wireless communications networks based on three major technologies. One of these technologies uses cell identification combined with Round Trip Time (RTT), Timing Advance (TA) and Measured Signal level (RX level), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Angle Of Arrival (AOA) techniques, the details of which can be appreciated by one skilled in the art. A second technology uses cellular signal timing based methods for code division multiple access (CDMA) and wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA). The third technology described in the Nokia document employs Global Positioning System (GPS) techniques.
Another list of methods and techniques currently used in the wireless communications industry for providing location services can be found at xe2x80x9cwww.911dispatch.com/911_file/location_tech.htmlxe2x80x9d, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference. Although the GPS technique is the last technique mentioned in this list, it generally is viewed as being more accurate than all of the other methods. Further details and descriptions of GPS based methods are set forth in a publication by J. J. Spilker Jr. entitled xe2x80x9cSatellite Constellation and Geometric Dilution of Precisionxe2x80x9d in xe2x80x9cGPSxe2x80x94Theory and Applicationsxe2x80x9d, American Institute of Astronautics, Inc., 1996, in a publication by P. Axelrad et al. entitled xe2x80x9cGPS Navigation Algorithmsxe2x80x9d in xe2x80x9cGPSxe2x80x94Theory and Applicationsxe2x80x9d, American Institute of Astronautics, Inc., 1996, in a publication by Bradford W. Parkinson entitled xe2x80x9cGPS Error Analysisxe2x80x9d in xe2x80x9cGPSxe2x80x94Theory and Applicationsxe2x80x9d, American Institute of Astronautics, 1996, and in a publication by N. Ashby et al. xe2x80x9cIntroduction to Relativistic Effects on the Global Positioning Systemxe2x80x9d in xe2x80x9cGPSxe2x80x94Theory and Applicationsxe2x80x9d, American Institute of Astronautics, 1996, the entire contents of each of these publications being incorporated herein by reference.
Despite the fact that the GPS technique has been in use for a considerable duration of time and most of the world""s navigation relies on this technique, the GPS technique is very susceptible to errors in measurement. Therefore, the GPS technique is capable of providing location determination results with very high accuracy only after performing a relative large number of measurements to remove such errors. A description of the shortcomings of GPS is set forth in a document by IMA entitled xe2x80x9cMathematical Challenges in Global Positioning Systems (GPS)xe2x80x9d which can be found at xe2x80x9cwww.ima.umn.edu/gpsxe2x80x9d, the entire contents of this document being incorporated herein by reference. Certain other tests also demonstrate that the GPS technique is unsuitable for terrestrial-based networks.
In addition, other methods and techniques which do not use GPS satellites for determining mobile station locations in a wireless communications network typically require that the signal from the mobile station is received at at least two cell sites that can measure and process the delay between signals arrival, identify the direction of the signal based on xe2x80x9cpath signaturexe2x80x9d and determine the distance between mobile station and the cell towers. In all of these methods, the processing of the information is executed in a designated central processing unit (CPU) which is typically located at a cell tower next to the base station (BTS). Also, most of these methods were designed to comply with E911 requirements without requiring that excessive modifications be made to existing wireless communications systems. Examples of other location determining techniques are set forth in a document by CERNxe2x80x94European Organization for Nuclear Research, which can be found at xe2x80x9crkb.home.cern.ch/rkb/ANI16pp/node98.html#SECTION00098000000000000000xe2x80x9d, in a document by Wendy J Woodbury Straight entitled xe2x80x9cExploring a New Reference Systemxe2x80x9d, which can be found at xe2x80x9cmenstorsoftwareince.com/profile/newref.htmlxe2x80x9d, and in a document entitled xe2x80x9cAn Introduction to SnapTrac Server-Aided GPS Technologyxe2x80x9d, which can be found at xe2x80x9cwww.snaptrack.com/pdf/ion.pdfxe2x80x9d, the entire contents of each of these documents being incorporated herein by reference.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved system and method for determining the location of a mobile user terminal in a wireless communications network that substantially eliminate the drawbacks associated with existing location determining systems and methods, such as GPS.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved system and method for computing the location of a mobile terminal in a wireless communications network, such as an ad-hoc wireless communications network.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for computing the location of a mobile terminal in a wireless communications network, such as an ad-hoc terrestrial wireless communications network, based on estimated distances to a plurality of terrestrial reference terminals using error minimizing techniques.
These and other objects are substantially achieved by providing a system and method for determining the location of a terminal in a wireless communications network. The system and method perform the operation of receiving respective signals from each of a plurality of reference terminals at the terminal, with each respective signal including information representing a location of its respective reference terminal. Specifically, the terminal receives the respective signals from at least four reference terminals, which can be terrestrial terminals. Also, the wireless communications network can be an ad-hoc wireless communications network, with the terminal and reference terminals being adapted to operate in the ad-hoc wireless communications network. The system and method further perform the operations of estimating a respective distance from the terminal to each of the reference terminals based on the respective signals received at the terminal, calculating a respective simulated pattern, such as a sphere or circle, about each of the respective reference terminals based on the respective distance from the terminal to each respective reference terminal and the respective locations of the respective reference terminals, estimating a location at which each of the simulated patterns intersect each other, and identifying the estimated location as representing the location of the terminal. When estimating the respective distances from the terminal to the reference terminals, the system and error can perform error minimizing techniques, such as those in accordance with Gauss""s postulate.

System and method for computing the location of a mobile terminal in a wireless communications network


A coupling unit for a semi-permanent connection of two wagons of a rail vehicle, which has a first housing and a second housing, which is pivotably and rotatably coupled to the first housing. A bearing outer ring with a hollow spherical inner bearing surface is fastened to the second housing and is guided in sliding fashion on a bearing inner ring with a spherical outer surface. The bearing inner ring is seated with an inner bore on a shaft fastened to the first housing. The shaft has, on a first end, one or two flattened portions and, on a second end, one or two second flattened portions. At least one clamping piece is provided which bears against one of the flattened portions and an opening region in the first housing, thereby preventing the shaft from rotating.

In rail vehicles, adjacent freight cars which are located together on a truck (for example Jacobs truck) are coupled by means of semi-permanent connections. Said connections are also referred to as "tight couplings." Vehicles having connections of this type are also referred to as "tight-coupled units." For the most part, only two vehicles are coupled to each other, but sometimes there are also more.
The object of said tight coupling is to transmit the tensile and compressive forces in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle from one freight car to the other upon acceleration and braking. Furthermore, said tight coupling is intended to transmit the transverse forces during curve travel and due to weight. The coupling is intended to ensure mobility about all three axes in space. During curve travel, the main movement angles occur about the vertical z axis. If depressions or bumps are crossed, tilting angles about a horizontally extending y axis and rolling angles about an x axis extending in the longitudinal direction of the train also occur and should be compensated for by the coupling. Furthermore, a tight coupling should not have any linear degrees of freedom in order to avoid jolting during changes of load.
There is a number of known solutions for the above-mentioned application. Said solutions are based predominantly on the fact that a radial swivel bearing having a horizontal bearing axis forms the central element of the articulated connection. The swivel bearing has the required rotatory angular movements because of suitable geometry in all three pivot axes. For this purpose, the swivel bearing is fixed via the outer ring thereof in a coupling housing. The housing constitutes a swivel head and is suitably connected in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle to the vehicle frame of one of the freight car ends to be connected. A welded joint is usually used for this purpose. The swivel bearing is fixed via the inner ring thereof to a stem or a shaft and the latter is fixed in turn in a housing. In various solutions of the prior art, the stem and inner ring are designed as a single part. The housing in turn is likewise connected in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle to the end of the second freight car to be connected. A welded joint is customarily also used for this. The housing is frequently shaped at the bottom in such a manner that it can be directly supported on the center plate of the truck. The required articulated connection is thereby formed. Said solutions from the prior art have swivel bearings requiring maintenance (lubrication with grease/oil) or swivel bearings which are maintenance-free (sliding layers between the outer and inner rings). Furthermore, solutions requiring maintenance and having other bearing solutions are known, but said solutions do not meet the ever-increasing service life requirements.
However, these known solutions from the prior art all have disadvantages. For example, the coordination of tolerances of the stem, housing, supporting disks and bearing width is difficult with regard to a play-free stem connection. Furthermore, the assembly/removal in the event of deformation of the stem is difficult. The stem seat in the housing or the inner ring seat on the stem frequently becomes corroded. The possibility of maintaining the known tight couplings of this type is therefore inadequate. Furthermore, the stem is insufficiently fixed in the housing. Constructional forms which are not sealed cause a high outlay on maintenance due to the required regreasing.
A further known type of articulated coupling unit for the semi-permanent connection of railroad freight cars is known from DE 691 08 977 T2. However, sealing of the bearing elements is not provided, and this restricts the use. In this coupling unit, the use of a wedge-shaped clamping part in order to fix the receiving stem of the inner bearing part on the housing is disadvantageous with regard to secure fastening and freedom from play, in particular in the event of shaking.


A light emitting diode package for one or more light emitting diodes mounted on a substrate. A frame is disposed on at least a portion of the substrate and substantially surrounds, but does not contact, the light emitting diode. The frame is substantially transparent to light emitted from the light emitting diode and includes one or more first wavelength converting materials. The wavelength converting materials, which may be one or more phosphors, convert at least a portion of light emitted at the emission wavelength to different wavelength. A cover covers the light emitting diode within the frame. The cover layer includes one or more second wavelength converting materials differing from the first one or more wavelength converting materials in wavelength converting material concentration or in converted light wavelength or in combinations of wavelength converting materials.

A light emitting diode ("LED") is a semiconductor light source. LEDs provide numerous advantages over other light sources such as incandescent lights. Amongst other advantages, LEDs typically have longer lifetimes, greater reliability, faster switching characteristics and lower energy consumption. Recent advances have produced LEDs with luminous intensities (lumen per Watt) that are comparable with or surpass incandescent lights.
LED produce light by the spontaneous recombination of electron and hole pairs when the LED is forward biased above the threshold voltage in an electronic circuit. The wavelength of the light produced depends upon the band gap between the materials used in the p-n junction that form the LED. The wavelength of the light produced by an LED is typically in the infra red, visible or UV ranges. Detailed information on LEDs is found in "Light emitting diodes" by E. Fred Schubert, Cambridge University Press, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference. Detailed information on semiconductor optics is found in "Semiconductor optics" by Claus F Klingshirn, Springer press, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference.
For ease of manufacturing, the most common form of LED is a micron-sized planar square LED die disposed on a substrate. The semiconductor comprising the die is usually silicon, and the substrate may be a metal such as aluminum, which also functions as a heat sink. The LED die is electrically connected to circuitry on the substrate by fine metal wires. The LED die itself may be surface mounted on the substrate, or within a cavity on the substrate.
Various challenges exist in producing a LED with a high luminous output that is suitable for use as a light source in human environments. The first is maximizing light extraction from the planar LED die itself. As semiconductor materials have a high refractive index, a large quantity of the light produced undergoes total internal reflection (TIR) at the semiconductor-air interface. It is known in the art to reduce the amount of light that undergoes TIR by reducing the difference between the refractive indices at the semiconductor surface. As the semiconductor refractive index is a material characteristic, this is achieved by encapsulating the LED with an encapsulating material having a higher refractive index. Historically an epoxy material was used, and more recently silicone due to its comparatively higher transparency, color stability and thermal performance. Silicone, however, is relatively harder to dispense.
Planar LEDs have a Lambertian emission pattern, as shown in FIG. 1. In other words, the radiant intensity is directly proportional to the cosine of the angle between the observer's position and the surface normal. Consequently, the apparent radiance of the emitted light to an observer appears the same from all positions. The encapsulating material used to reduce TIR can also act as a lens and narrow the light beam emitted. Various shapes of encapsulating material have been used and it is known in the art to use a hemispherical shaped encapsulant material to maximize the light extraction efficiency from a planar LED die.
Some of the light that does escape is absorbed or reflected by the surrounding substrate material, especially when the LED die is located within a cavity.
A single unencapsulated LED produces monochromatic light. Due to the interest in using LEDs as ambient lighting sources, in recent years research has focused on producing LED packages that emit light of different colors to that emitted by the LED die. There has been considerable interest in producing white light. The most popular way of producing white light from a single LED is by disposing a wavelength converting material, such as a yellow phosphor, on the visible (emitting) side of a blue-light emitting LED die. A layer of wavelength converting material applied on the LED die will absorb some of the emitted photons, and down-convert them into visible wavelength light, resulting in a dichromatic light source of blue and yellow wavelength light. If the yellow and blue light is produced in the correct proportions it is perceived by the human eye as a white color.
It is known in the art to add a wavelength converting material to the encapsulating layer surrounding the LED die. Application of the encapsulating material may be by different methods. They can be divided into two types: those that use molding or pre-molding to fix directly to the substrate, and those that create and then fill a dam that encircles the LED die. The latter is usually referred to as dispensing as the encapsulating material is provided in liquid form followed by curing.
Factors affecting the color quality of the white color light are the quantity and distribution of the phosphor over the LED die. These determine the proportion of yellow wavelength light produced. When the phosphor is dispersed within the encapsulating material, process control issues can result in uneven phosphor distribution surrounding the LED. As a result, the light from the packaged LED may have a yellow "ring" away from the central beam axis. This also arises from the Lambertian emission profile of the LED and/or phosphor particle settling: there are too few phosphor particles on the center of the LED die to emit enough yellow light relative to the amount of blue light emitted, whilst towards the LED die sides there are too many phosphor particles relative to the amount of blue light emitted, and hence over stimulated to emit yellow light.
Thus there is a need in the art for packaged LEDs having uniform color emission properties.

Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited


A simultaneous multiple cooking mode barbecue grill that includes a first cooking mode unit configured to prepare food in a first cooking mode, a second cooking mode unit configured to prepare food in a second cooking mode, and a supporting structure that supports the first cooking mode unit and the second cooking mode unit so that the first and second cooking mode units can be moved securely and operated simultaneously to prepare food using multiple cooking modes.

Barbecue enthusiasts have the need to prepare barbecue using various modes (methods, manners, etc.) of cooking. For example, sometimes barbecuing with a charcoal based fuel (e.g., charcoal briquettes) is needed. Other times, barbecuing with a wood based fuel is needed (e.g., for a smoker process). Yet other times, barbecuing with a gas based fuel (e.g., propane) is needed. Furthermore, other types of fuel may be needed to satisfy the barbecuing objective.
Existing options typically consist of a barbecue grill that can only prepare barbecue in a single mode. For example, some options provide for charcoal grilling, others for wood or smoker grilling, and yet others for gas grilling. For the "multi-mode" barbecuer, these options require the use of more than one separate grill. A few options consist of a grill that can be converted between two modes, for example, charcoal and gas. However, these options are still limited in that they can only be operated in one mode at a time and typically require complicated reconfigurations to switch between cooking modes. Moreover, these existing options lack sufficient capability for controlling the various cooking modes in order to obtain performance that is even comparable to existing single mode grills.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a barbecue grill that is capable of cooking in multiple modes simultaneously while offering the control and performance capabilities for each mode that is at least comparable to a corresponding single mode grill.

Simultaneous multiple cooking mode barbecue grill


A controller for a climate control system has a humidity (wet-bulb or dew point) temperature sensor as well as a dry-bulb temperature sensor within the enclosure. The humidity temperature value is used in connection with the dry-bulb temperature to generate a single error signal which is a function of both the dry-bulb and the humidity temperature values. This permits control of both enclosure temperature and enclosure humidity without abnormal cycling of the climate control system. Instead of using a sensor which directly measures the humidity temperature, the humidity temperature can be synthesized from the relative humidity and dry-bulb temperature within the enclosure.

This invention is directed generally to control of indoor climate modifying apparatus such as an air conditioning unit or a furnace for maintaining comfort for the occupants of enclosures. The more important application is in controlling operation of air conditioners, and the discussion and disclosure following will be based primarily on the air conditioning case. The invention will typically be implemented in an electronic thermostat which uses a microcontroller in conjunction with a temperature sensor for controlling opening and closing of a solid state switch which controls the flow of operating current to the air conditioning control module.
Thermostats typically in use now which direct operation of air conditioners use dry-bulb temperature as the controlled variable. By the term "dry-bulb temperature" is meant the actual temperature of the air as measured by a typical thermometer, and the use of the term "temperature" or "air temperature" hereafter will refer to dry-bulb temperature unless the context clearly directs otherwise. It is easy to measure air temperature and this measurement is already available in most thermostats. A typical thermostat in air conditioning mode causes the air conditioning to begin operating when temperature rises above a set point value. The air conditioner responds by injecting cold air into the enclosure until the temperature within the enclosure has fallen to a point below the set point value. The typical thermostat uses an anticipation element so as to turn off the air conditioning before the actual set point is reached. For many situations this type of control results in air which is comfortable for the enclosure's occupants.
It is well known that an air conditioner removes humidity from the air as well as cools it. The mechanism by which humidity is removed involves passing air from the enclosure or from the outside through the air conditioner, reducing the temperature of this air to substantially less than the comfort range of 70.degree.-74.degree. F. In order to remove humidity from the air, the temperature of at least some of it must be lowered to less than the current dew point temperature, the temperature at which water condenses from the air. Some of the water in the conditioned air condenses on the cooling coils of the air conditioner in this process and drips off the coils to a pan below, from which it drains. Because air will not release any of its humidity until it has reached 100% relative humidity, i.e., its dew point temperature, it is necessary for at least the air adjacent the cooled surfaces of the heat exchanger to reach this temperature. The total air stream through the air conditioner however, may not reach 100% relative humidity because not all of the air is cooled to its dew point. The relatively cold and dry conditioned air (relatively dry even though it has nearly 100% relative humidity) is mixed with the uncomfortably warm and humid air within the enclosure to achieve a more acceptable 40-60% relative humidity at a comfortable temperature of 70.degree.-75.degree. F. as well controlled by the thermostat.
Normally this procedure results in air within the enclosure whose humidity is within the comfort range. However, there are situations that can result in air having humidity which is still too high when the temperature requirement has been met. To achieve air at comfortable levels of both temperature and humidity, an air conditioner is sized for the expected load which the enclosure will present so that when the set point temperature is reached, humidity is acceptable. But in cases of unusually high humidity or where the air conditioner capacity relative to the current environmental conditions does not result in sufficient dehumidification when the set point temperature is reached, it is possible for the air in the enclosure to have excessive humidity.
It seems to be a simple solution to control the relative humidity in the enclosure by simply adding a relative humidity sensor to the thermostat, and then controlling the air conditioner to hold relative humidity within a selected set point range. A problem with this approach is that the relative humidity of the enclosure air may actually rise as the air is cooled and dehumidified within the enclosure. This possibility arises because the relative humidity is a function of both the amount of water vapor in a given volume or mass of air and its dry-bulb temperature. Relative humidity for any volume of air is defined as the ratio of the partial pressure of the water vapor in the air to the vapor pressure of saturated steam at that temperature. Since the vapor pressure of saturated steam drops rapidly with temperature, a relatively small amount of water vapor in a volume of air at a lower temperature can result in 100% relative humidity. It is thus possible to have a runaway situation where the humidity control function in the thermostat continues to call for further dehumidification, and as the temperature within the enclosure falls, relative humidity rises and locks the air conditioning on.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,063 (Bergt) is related art which discloses an air conditioning system which controls the dew-point temperature of enclosure air independently of the dry-bulb temperature. Bergt provides a sensor responsive to absolute moisture content which operates in parallel with the normal dry-bulb temperature control. Because of the parallel operation of the two control functions, undesirably short cycles are possible. This over-cycling problem is solved by the present invention. Bergt's invention may also require reheat which reduces the efficiency of the process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,280 (Grald and MacArthur) is related art disclosing an auctioneering controller wherein the predetermined dry-bulb temperature set point is modified in response to a absolute humidity error signal. The enclosure temperature which results may not always be comfortable, and there is also a potential for over-cycling.

Indoor climate controller system adjusting both dry-bulb temperature and wet-bulb or dew point temperature in the enclosure


A material is provided for capturing a chemical substance comprising fibers which carry metal alkoxide particles on the surfaces thereof. The metal alkoxide particles are made from an oligosilica, an oligozirconia, an oligotitiania, or the like. The fibers may include inorganic fibers, regenerated fibers and/or synthetic fibers. The material for capturing a chemical substance is produced by a method comprising steps of subjecting the fibers to a surface treatment for facilitating adhesion of the metal alkoxide particles to the surfaces of the fibers, forming the metal alkoxide particles on the surfaces of the fibers, and fixing the metal alkoxide particles to the surfaces of the fibers. A chemical substance-capturing tube, capable of capturing a trace of a chemical substance in a liquid or a gas, can be produced by placing the fibers, i.e., the material for capturing a chemical substance, in a hollow tube.

This invention relates to a fibrous material for capturing a chemical substance used in the field of separation analysis of chemical substances, such as liquid chromatography and gas chromatography, to a method for producing the material, and to a tube for capturing a chemical substance using the material.
As a material used for capturing liquid-diluted samples, a material put into a hollow polyethylene tube or a syringe-type plastic container is known. The material has silica gel particles, silica gel or polymer particles with chemically modified surfaces, assemblies of a material made of glass fibers or tetrafluoroethylene fibers tangling with silica gel particles, or the like, being held between frits in the container. It is broadly used for solid phase extraction.
A plastic container in which the assemblies of the above material are packed has a defect that flow resistance is strong. There is another defect that a great deal of solvent is required to move constituents of a sample. Furthermore, the material is liable to be unevenly bedded at the time of loading the material into the plastic container. Therefore, the capturing efficiency may decrease because large passages are generated in the loading material.
As prior art, there is also a material of a disc type in which a loading material for capturing a chemical substance is made of the above particles and formed into woven fabric, which is held between frits in the container. The material is unified and formed into a disc to be treated. The material of such a disc type needs to be sufficiently hardened in a manner of hardening the particles from the edge.
Hence, objects of the present invention are to remedy the above defects and provide a reliable material which can capture an objective chemical substance from a diluted sample and a method for producing the same, and to provide a capturing tube made of the material.
In the present invention, a material for capturing a chemical substance is made of a form of fiber, i.e., fibers which have particles made from metal alkoxide on surfaces thereof. The metal alkoxide includes oligosilica, oligozirconia, oligotitania and the like, which produce particles. In this specification, the particles mentioned above are called metal alkoxide particles.
In the present invention, a method for producing the above material includes a step of treating surfaces of the fibers to facilitate the fixation of metal alkoxide thereto, a step of forming metal alkoxide particles on the surfaces of the fibers, and a step of fixing the metal alkoxide particles to the surfaces of the fibers.
In the present invention, a tube for capturing a chemical substance is a hollow tube which holds the fibrous material for capturing a chemical substance mentioned above and captures a small amount of chemical substance from a liquid or gas.

Material for capturing chemical substance, method for producing the same, and chemical substance-capturing tube

178-11, Kitashinmachi 6-chome, Matsubara


A novel method is provided for the preparation of a esterified propoxylated glycerin having food grade quality by reacting at temperatures of from about 100.degree. C. to about 250.degree. C. a propoxylated glycerin having from 2 to 100 oxypropylene oxide units per glycerin with excess C10-C24 fatty acids and purifying the reactant product by methanol extraction or steam stripping and neutralization of excess fatty acid.

Edible, wholly or partially non-digestible low calorie fat materials and methods for the preparation thereof are known. Much has been written about the adverse health problems of high fat diets, thus indicating clearly an interest in and a need for a fat substitute that is either entirely non-digestible, or has a reduced caloric value. The recent interest in non-caloric food substitutes has resulted in several classes of compounds being proposed. One suggested class has been esterified propoxylated glycerins. However, because the recommended methods of preparation either required toxic catalysts which cannot be completely removed or result in a product with unacceptable acidity, new process methods are needed. The instant invention overcomes these problems and is directed to a novel method for preparing esterified propoxylated glycerin with a food grade quality.
European Patent No. 254,547 discloses that esterified propoxylated glycerins can be used as non-caloric food substitutes. References cited therein provide a good review of the field relating to fat substitutes, methods for their preparation and problems associated therewith. Two methods of preparation are described in EP 254,547 none of which can be used to prepare a food grade product. The preferred method is to react fatty acids with a propoxylated glycerin using p-toluenesulfonic acid as catalyst allowing catalyst residues at unacceptable levels even after purification. The same was observed using the metal catalysts exemplified hereinafter. An alternative method, with is exemplified in the examples of EP No. 254,547 reacts the propoxylated glycerin with a fatty acid chloride in the presence of a tertiary amine such as pyridine. Not only would such methods be technically impractical for commercialization but would require column chromatography for any purification. Food grade products must be essentially catalyst free unless the catalyst is by itself non-toxic. This is not true for sulfonic acids or most of the Lewis acid metals which may be utilized as catalysts. None of the methods described in EP 254,547 could be acceptable as food grade products.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,337,595 describes a method for preparing fatty esters of propoxylated glycerins where the propoxylated glycerin has a molecular weight above 600. These esters are disclosed as being useful for controlling, suppressing and/or preventing foaming of aqueous systems having foaming tendencies in industrial processes. The process is not suitable for preparing food grade products. The acid values (maximum of 25 KOH/g) are much too high for an edible oil. Only stoichiometric quantities of reactants are employed resulting in a method too slow to be considered for a practical commercial process.

Preparation of esterified propoxylated glycerin from free fatty acids


A function defined in source code of an application is further partitioned into a plurality of logics without depending on function definition performed by a developer. An application partitioning apparatus (1) for partitioning an application distributively processed by a plurality of information processing apparatuses into a plurality of logics includes an acquisition unit (121) which acquires source code of the application, a first partitioning unit (122) which identifies a plurality of functions defined in the source code and partitioning the source code into the plurality of functions, a determination unit (123) which determines whether each of the partitioned functions can be further partitioned according to rules set in advance, and a second partitioning unit (124) which, when it is determined that each of the partitioned function can be partitioned, partitions the function into a plurality of functions including one or a plurality of rows.

With the recent spread of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), various apparatuses around users are connected to the Internet and collection and utilization of information acquired through such apparatuses have become easy. With this background, in order to realize efficiency of information collection and fast response time, anticipation for a distributed application in which a plurality of application logics (a component that performs some kind of process on input data and outputs the data is referred to as "logic" below) are arranged and executed in geographically distributed machines in a vertical distribution environment is increasing. For example, it is possible to reduce communication traffic when data is transmitted to a cloud server by arranging a logic that integrates information transmitted from IoT apparatuses in a relay server. In addition, it is possible to decrease a response time of an application by arranging a logic that frequently communicates with a terminal of a user of the application in a server geographically close to the user.
It is known that, to operate an application in a plurality of machines in a distributed manner, it is necessary to partition the application into a plurality of logics and arrange the logics in the respective machines (refer to Non Patent Literature 1, for example). Here, the performance of the application considerably changes according to how the application is partitioned and how the application is arranged in a distributed manner. This is caused by the fact that transfer of data between logics is performed through communication between machines and a processing time of a logic strongly depends on the performance of a machine that operates the logic. Accordingly, in order to maximize the application performance, a technology for determining optimal application partitioning and arrangement is required. For example, a method of partitioning a function defined by a developer into a single logic and automatically determining optimal distributed arrangement that can maximize certain performance (traffic between machines, throughput, processing time, etc.) is known (refer to Non Patent Literature 2, for example). Here, "function" generally refers to an arrangement of processes necessary to obtain a certain output. For example, when a distance between two designated points is desired to be calculated, a process of calculating a difference between x coordinates of the points, a process of calculating a difference between y coordinates thereof, and a process of calculating a square root of a value obtained by adding the squares of the differences are defined as a single function. In addition, to determine optimal distributed arrangement, a method of solving an optimization problem including a linear programming problem can be used (refer to Non Patent Literature 3, for example).
As an example of an application that is an object of such distributed arrangement, a face recognition application in which a plurality of functions are defined in source code is disclosed (refer to Non Patent Literature 4, for example). Furthermore, it is known that there are a data dependency relation and a control dependency relation between processing logics in a program (refer to Non Patent Literature 5, for example).

Application division device, method and program

NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION


Provided by the present invention are compositions or formulations suitable for application to a patient's eyes which utilizes a topical ophthalmically-acceptable formulation comprising a therapeutically-effective amount of an ophthalmically-active antimicrobial agent, and an ophthalmically-active anti-inflammatory or steroidal agent in combination with physiologic levels of serum electrolytes in an ophthalmic formulation for the treatment of changes in the normal eye condition. The invention also includes methods of treating patient's having an ophthalmic disease, injury or disorder, utilizing the compositions or formulations. Also provided are kits comprising the compositions or formulations and a means of applying the compositions or formulation to the patient's eyes.

The present invention relates to ophthalmic formulations, kits and uses thereof, wherein the formulations utilize physiologic levels of serum electrolytes in conjunction with pharmacologically effective doses of an antimicrobial agent, and an anti-inflammatory or steroidal agent in a single formulation for the treatment of ocular disorders, diseases or injuries. Combinations or formulations containing an antimicrobial agent and an anti-inflammatory agent are available in the ophthalmic art. However, there are concerns and expressed reservations in the ophthalmic community about the safety and efficacy of such prior art combinations. There continues to be a need for an effective and safe topical ophthalmic pharmaceutical composition of a steroid or anti-inflammatory agent and a broad spectrum antibiotic which, when administered to the eye will not inhibit the activity of the antibiotic, or steroidal or anti-inflammatory components.
Many ophthalmic conditions result in an aberrant tear film composition. The electrolyte balances and concentrations in tears can change as a result of a disruption in the normal eye physiology. For example, when ocular tissue is inflamed, serum components leak from the vasculature into the tear film. Many of these ophthalmic conditions are typically treated with antimicrobial and/or steroidal or anti-inflammatory compounds.

Ophthalmic formulations and uses thereof


A circuit, apparatus and method for maximizing system margins by adjusting a duty-cycle of a clock signal in a receive circuit to whatever duty-cycle is optimal for the particular incoming serial data, rather than the typical 50% duty-cycle, is provided in embodiments of the present invention. A receive circuit, including duty-cycle-correction logic, is included in a double-data rate communication apparatus having a transmit circuit transmitting serial data having duty-cycle distortion. A receive circuit includes a first and second sampler to obtain data and edge values of an incoming serial data responsive to a data and edge clock, respectively. A duty-cycle-correction logic generates a duty-cycle-correction signal to a duty-cycle clock integrator that adjusts the edge clock signals while maintaining quadrature to the data clocks. In an embodiment of the present invention, a duty-cycle-correction logic includes an evaluator circuit to generate an up or down signal responsive to the data and/or edge values. In a further embodiment of the present invention, an evaluator circuit is coupled to a counter and a DAC to generate a duty-cycle-correction signal to the duty-cycle clock integrator. A digital filter or coding scheme is also used to reduce the likelihood of misinterpreting malevolent incoming serial data for duty-cycle distortion in an embodiment of the present invention.

A double-data rate ("DDR") system includes a transmit circuit for transmitting serial data, having a particular duty-cycle, to a receiving circuit. Most receive circuits include a clock circuit for synchronizing the incoming serial data. In particular, the sampling clocks are recovered by looking at the incoming data stream and aligning sampling edges to the center of the data eyes or data cells. Ideally, the incoming serial data has a 50% duty-cycle.
However, a receive circuit may receive incoming data that has duty-cycle distortion and does not have the ideal 50% duty-cycle. First, a transmit clock circuit may generate a clock signal used for transmitting the data that does not have the ideal 50% duty-cycle. The transmit clock circuit may include Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor ("CMOS") transistors that may be prone to random variations that introduce errors in the transmit clock signal. Second, a receive circuit introduces errors. For example, the receive circuit observes or reacts to rising edges faster than falling edges of a received data signal. Once again, this may cause a receiver recovered clock that is not centered at a data eye. Third, channel effects may cause duty-cycle distortion. For example, the medium used in transferring the serial data between the transmit circuit and receive circuit introduces delays that skew the expected data eye. Fourth, the receive clock itself may have a duty-cycle distortion present in it which may cause the input data to appear distorted when sampled by the receive clock.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a circuit, apparatus and method for reducing the errors in obtaining data values caused by duty-cycle distortion.

Circuit, apparatus and method for adjusting a duty-cycle of a clock signal in response to incoming serial data


An image stabilization apparatus includes a moving member configured to be movable within a plane orthogonal to an optical axis of an image pickup optical system, a stationary member configured to movably support the moving member within the plane orthogonal to the optical axis of the image pickup optical system, and a plurality of drive units configured to drive the moving member so as to move within the plane orthogonal to the optical axis of the image pickup optical system with respect to the stationary member, in which a first drive unit of the plurality of drive units is arranged on a first surface side of the moving member and a second drive unit of the plurality of drive units is arranged on a second surface side of the moving member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image stabilization apparatus provided with a mechanism configured to correct image blur of an optical image formed by an image pickup optical system and an image pickup apparatus to which the image stabilization apparatus is applied.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, image pickup apparatuses are generally commercialized which are configured to sequentially photoelectrically convert an optical image formed by an image pickup optical system using an image pickup device or the like, store the image signal thereby acquired in a storage medium as image data (still image) or video data (movie) in a predetermined mode or transmit the acquired image signal to image display apparatus so as to be able to sequentially displayed.
As such type of image pickup apparatuses, conventionally, various types of image pickup apparatuses provided with an image stabilization apparatus configured so as to be able to correct so-called image blur caused by shake (e.g., so-called hand shake) of an image pickup apparatus or the like in which image pickup operation is in progress are disclosed and commercialized in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-26399 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-32543 or the like.
The image stabilization apparatus disclosed in above Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-26399 or the like adopts a configuration in which a support member configured to movably support a moving member that holds an optical system which is part of an image pickup optical system and drive means for moving the moving member are arranged in a region biased in one diameter direction centered on an optical axis of the image pickup optical system. Note that Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-26399 discloses a so-called lens shift type image stabilization apparatus in a mode in which image stabilization is performed by moving the optical lens which is part of the image pickup optical system within a plane orthogonal to the optical axis of the image pickup optical system.
The image stabilization apparatus disclosed in above Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-32543 or the like is configured to arrange components of drive means (coil, magnet, yoke) for driving the moving member with respect to the stationary member and part of a flexible printed circuit board that extends from the drive means in a space between the moving member and the stationary member. In this case, the above drive means are configured to be provided at respective positions of the image pickup device and the image pickup optical system opposite to each other across the optical axis. Note that above Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2012-32543 discloses the so-called sensor shift type image stabilization apparatus in the mode in which image stabilization is performed by moving the image pickup plane of the image pickup device within the plane orthogonal to the optical axis.

Image stabilization apparatus and image pickup apparatus applied with image stabilization apparatus